encounters
by xConfuzzle
Summary: After an unlikely meeting, the spider and the clown start their acquaintance, which begins to grow as each of them, unexpectedly, require the other's support. Rated M for language, and perhaps some physicalness later. It's my first fanfiction c:
1. encounters

Gamzee Makara sat in the nook beneath the stairs, hunched over with his head in his arms, hiding his deep indigo eyes from the light. The crowd elsewhere stomped and screamed down the hallways, but in one of his pie phases, Gamzee ignored the cacophony easily. A few strays from the mass passed by the stairs, either to engage in their group smokes or to find a place suitable for their intimacy. Gamzee's clown make-up, which decorated his face daily, had been smudged from the day's partying and activities, but now he could care less; all he wanted to do was wind down. The stained, dirty, polka-dotted pants, and ripped shirt of his could find their own peace later.

The Capricorn had no reason to not return home anyways; his father was never home and even if he were, Gamzee would be more ecstatic and motherfucking chill than wary of any questioning that may ensue. That'd be a motherfucking miracle.

His phone buzzed in his pocket. Speak of the devil, here's the almost-expected message of hey-son-I'm-not-going-to-be-home. The teen sighed and tucked his head back into his arms. "I swear he doesn't even write that himself. Or it's automatic," the boy whispered to himself. Either way, this was a pretty chill plac-

Out of nowhere, a glass bottle flew haphazardly down the steps and landed right on Gamzee's magnificent horns on top of his head. He straightened up and mumbled strong profanities while rubbing the spot the bottle had hit; the perpetrating bottle rolled down off his back and shattered. "What the motherfucking motherfuck?" A fit of laughter erupted from above and footsteps could be heard trampling away. "FUCKASSES." Dang, he could feel that hanging out with Karkat Vantas so often was rubbing off on him, or perhaps Karkat had simply added onto Gamzee's already colourful vocabulary.

As long as he was up, shaking his fists like an old person on the lawn, he might as well return home. No need to dawdle around.

Vriska Serket. Manipulative genius extraordinaire. She strut down the main hallway in the school and approached her locker. Her long, flowing black hair trailed softly behind her and her blue eyes and lips reflected beautifully off the glass doors. She took the chance to make sure she still looked stunning before running off. Vriska was desperate to put down all of these damned textbooks that were making both her eyes and her arms sore. Just as she was about to swing the locker knob around, one of her suitors blocked her path with his arm. A tuft of obnoxiously hipster purple hair swung into Vriska's vision; she immediately wanted to give him a fist full of shut the fuck up, as this annoying kid would always say in her class.

"What do you want, Eridan," she growled between clenched teeth. "Wwell, I'm cravving something…. spicy right now," he replied with an eyebrow wiggle.

"I don't care about your dietary needs or your impulses, and no- before you say it, I will not suffice. Beat it, numbnuts." Yup, that kid in her class was definitely rubbing his vocabulary off on Vriska. Her arm was aching from the weight of the textbooks, or perhaps it was just itching to let her fists greet Eridan's face. Yes, that last option seemed extremely pleasant, if only these nasty, mandatory policemen didn't wander the halls with their detention-happy attitudes. On a whim, she simply let go of the texts and let them plummet to the floor, right onto Eridan's legs.

"VVRISKA! WWHAT'S WWRONG WWITH YOU!" He looked even more ridiculous than he usually did, hopping and almost tripping over himself.

"I'm sorry, my arm was just _sooooo_ tired and the ground just seemed _soooo_ welcoming to my books. Potential energy, you know," she mocked his show-offy attitude in class. She looked down at her Physics books (the massive amounts of irony would have sent her into a laughing fit but she had to keep her aloof composure), math worksheets, and other doodles sprawled everywhere; Vriska knew she'd eventually have to spend time to slowly pick these sheets up, but she could careless right now.

Eridan trudged away, but Vriska knew he'd return some time later in the day. Annoyed, but still pleased with herself, she bent down to slowly pick up her items. Her long fingers grasped lazily at the papers; she had no desire to actually keep any of these worksheets, but she felt – strangely – the need to be a good citizen. In the corner of her eye, she saw a lanky arm extend and grasp her Physics book. "Hey," Vriska glared and hissed, "that's mi-."

"Woah motherfucker. Just trying to help someone out. Chill. Here," the boy in clown makeup thrust the textbook with some force into Vriska's arms, perhaps signaling that he was offended by her aggressiveness. Gamzee straightened up and walked off in the same high trance he's usually in around school.

Vriska recognized the clown as someone who always hung out with that loud-mouth who was always rubbing off his angry vocabulary on you. What was his name? Carcass? Cable? Karcat? Karkat. Yeah, Karkat. Which means that the stoned guy is Gamzee Makara; everyone knew Makara, but no one actually _knew_ him. He was school druggie and the guy that miraculously doesn't fail school, but everyone still placed bets on his success just to pass away the boredom. In fact, the only thing that Vriska knew about him other people didn't was that he liked really psychedelic music because she had seen him in the crowd yesterday at the club where Fusion had played their gig. But shortly after, she had lost sight of him, and hadn't really given it another thought.

"Just tryin' to help a motherfucker out. Whatever." Gamzee dug his hands into his pants, now clean and stain free, and produced a small bottle of Faygo. "It's a miracle that you fit in there." After wandering around the halls, he found these stairs in a corner. Gamzee sat down, legs wide open and chill, on the last step and enjoyed his beverage. He thought about the dark haired girl who had just slapped him in the face with ingratitude; _she sure was a spiderbitch_, he thought. That's what everyone called her. It wasn't exactly true, as Gamzee recalls. He may be high on pie all of the time, but he does take notice of details and gossip around the hallways; it makes for a nice conversation with Karkat in the back of really boring lecture halls.

Gamzee had heard different stories of that girl. Serket. That was her name. Ser-motherfucking-ket. Serket was one hell of a looker because her eyes just seemed to look right into you and just knew how to mess with you; while some people found this stuff creepy, Gamzee was just into this macabre stuff. Yeah, 'stuff'. Some people say she's a succubus. She lures men away and throws them into a dungeon for fun or something. Others' have more ridiculous stories, but even Gamzee found them awfully outlandish, which says a lot. If _the_ Gamzee – yes, the one in the clown make up, always higher than helium – found something foolish, then anyone else was stupid to believe otherwise.

Gamzee blinked twice. How long had he been spacing out tracing his mind for the 'history' of Vriska Serket? Wait- who? Pie, that's who. He looked down at his lap to greet his pie, but then realized he hadn't brought any to start with. This is what he gets for not eating that extra slice this morning; it's already messing with his head even more than it usually does. Gamzee got up slowly, but quickly lost his balance and tumbled to the floor.

"Nnnggg."

"Need help?" The voice sounded vaguely familiar. Gamzee's mess of a hair covered his face, but he managed to still peek through openings and saw the spiderbitch. "Motherfuck." "Bro, sorry about earlier. I was just pissed around Eridork." Vriska extended a hand, which Gamzee grasped limply in his pie-deprived state. The girl tried to give one strong pull, but ended up underestimating the clown's weight and tripped.

She toppled on top of him, giving him yet another reason to let out periodic groans. "Yo, Clown. Let go of my hand. Pffttt." Gamzee's fluffy hair was in her mouth and she was tangled up in Gog knows what. "Motherfucker, you're the one on top of me." "Is that your sort of way to say oh-thanks-sexy-for-helping-me?" "No, I'm just returning our earlier encounter." If he didn't let out a small chuckle, Vriska would have thought that he was starting a war with her.

"Alright. Fine." Vriska rolled off to the side, but still laid partly on top of Gamzee. Surprisingly, he smelled extremely alluring, and when he, too, rolled over, she got a good look at those glazed eyes. If they had more focus, they'd be an attractive dark-indido-purple-ish colour. Attractive, attractive, attractivey, attractive. The darkened lips weren't too bad either…

"Uhhhh, I hope I'm not being too pushy or anything, but we're gonna be motherfuckin' late." "Do you even know what time it is? Or care?" "Haha, motherfucking no." "It's already one-thirty." "Awwwww that's not cool, bro. I got to run off to …. uh….. haha I don't even know where." Judging by his slurred speech, Vriska guessed his was long overdue for his pie tasting or whatever powders he loved to stuff up his face.

Arm in arm, so he won't fall over again, she dragged him towards the south end of the building. "Bro, we got class together now. There's a test tomorrow."


	2. moirail beginnings

By some miraculous spell, Vriska managed to drag the sluggish male to the classroom and to his seat. In retrospect, she probably should not have bothered, because he was now bent over in his seat, limbs hanging limply in random directions. His hair was a mess, too, after Vriska accidentally plowed her fingers through it from the fall earlier.

"Gamzee. Yo, Gamze-" Vriska nudged the clown in the arm since he was started to produce strange mumbles. "Gamzee. Gamzee Makara, shut up. You're fucking embarrassing me." With a final forceful nudge, Vriska successfully pushed the boy into a socially acceptable sitting position, but his sounds did not cease.

"Vriiisssssssssska. I'm tiiiirred. Tiiiiiiiired." Gamzee limped, once again, in his seat, which sent the spider girl into fits of internal rage. She squinted her eyes, hoping that her daggers would stab some sense into him, but he just mumbled more and collapsed on top of her. His messy hair now covered her notebook, and to make matters worse, she noticed that during the fall, he had pushed her pen with his head and created a hideous streak across her paper. Her notes have now been accidentally defiled.

Had her professor not been strict, with eyes of a hawk and ears of a fox, she would have flipped her desk to Saturn and back, hoping along the way that Gamzee would have suffocated to atone for the sins he has committed against her notes. "For crying out loud, I am _actually_ taking notes for once. And it's for tomorrow's test. Get- Ge- GET OFF," she whispered with vice.

The word 'test' pierced Gamzee's semi-conscious mind and he bounced up. That's right, he thought. There was a test tomorrow. He sprung back into his seat and pulled his backpack closer to him with his shoes, since it was flung without care into the aisle by Vriska earlier. His gray hands plunged into the sack and scrambled desperately for something. When his fingers felt the jagged top of the pen he always chewed on, he yanked it out and began to furiously scrawl notes onto his left arm.

Vriska stopped in the middle of her fifth bullet point and stared at Mr. Stoner Boy next to her. With genuine surprise in her eyes, she looked at the neat notes and snippets of relevant information that was appearing on the left arm of the boy who, seconds ago, did not seem like he had the capability of even producing coherent words. In fact, those notes were much neater than hers. "What the hell," she curiously asked.

"A motherfuckin' bro has to maintain his motherfuckin' grades, you know." "Like you even care; I rarely see you in the library, or in classes. Or doing work. Ever. Actually, the only time I've ever seen you not high looking was at Fusion last night." Gamzee, turned his head ever-so-slightly and stared into Vriska's cobalt eyes. He held them there for a few seconds, intensely staring, as if trying to read Vriska's mind. "You know," he started in a hushed, slow voice, "just because someone goes to the library doesn't mean they work. I've seen you on the interwebs. I've seen some motherfuckin' weird things happening at the more remote sections of the library- and yes, I do motherfucking go there. And just because you don't see me doesn't mean I'm not motherfuckin' there." He finished his serious mini monologue with a mysterious, playful wink, and turned back to his arm.

Vriska didn't turn away. She continued to stare at Makara, who seemed to have toned her out just for now. His low seductive-sounding whisper had temporarily numbed her mind, and now she was considering why she thought he was flunking school. It was all gossip in the hallways. _You know that creepy guy with the make up? What's up with him? I bet he smokes at least three times a day in school. JUST IN SCHOOL. Oh, really? Well __**I**__ bet that he doesn't even come to school half the time._

In a sudden flash of insight, Vriska snapped out of her state and grabbed Gamzee's arms. "Gamzee. What's your grade? All of your grades? Don't you lie to me, motherfucke-" Her hands flung up to her mouth; _oh no_, she thought, _his vocabulary is rubbing off on me. _Gamzee took it that Vriska, as well as everyone else thought he was downright stupid and even expected that he had awful grades.

The same look Gamzee had when Vriska attacked him for helping pick up her papers appeared again, and she knew she'd crossed a line. Of course, one may assume that because everyone talked about the clown, the clown would not be offended when everyone assumed he held the characteristics of a clown. If one called a great dane or giant rhinoceros cute, and it could comprehend, the great dane's or rhinoceros' masculinity would not be offended since it was the 'norm' to be cute. Right?

Gamzee didn't answer, but instead turned back to arm, which now became a glove of black. He was quickly running out of room, too, so he switched hands and began writing on his right arm. "Oh, ambidextrous, " Vriska commented. She spoke softly, assuming that she had hurt the Capricorn's feelings, and for some reason, was trying to get back onto his good side. "So…. hey….. it seems you're pretty organized. So. Uh. Do you… want to….. study together tonight?"

Gamzee didn't answer again for a few seconds, which led Vriska to believe that they had completely gotten off the wrong foot; sure, she may be a 'spiderbitch' and manipulative and mean, but deep down, she only meant to joke around most of the time. The boy's serious face suddenly loosened up, his eyes glazed, and he sank back into his seat. "Study for mothafuckin' what? What class are we in!"

That was it; the tension dissipated almost as rapidly as Vriska's mouth dropped open. Surely this guy can't be serious, she thought. "DUDE." She playfully slapped his arm, hoping to knock more sense into him. "NOT FUNNY. I THOUGHT YOU WERE PISSED, MAN."

"Haha, motherfucker, I'm rarely genuinely motherfucking pissed off. It'd take a whole lot of effort, not to mention Faygo and pie kidnappings, to make me fly off my motherfucking handle." "Is that a play on words for your…." Vriska gestured to his clown make up. Gamzee's hands flew up and grabbed the protruding finger.

Vriska stared at him with a confused look.

"Honk."

"DUDE. SERIOUSLY. I can't flunk this class. I need to pass. I'd ask Erida- Eridork, but I'd rather not have him rub his filthy floor-kissing cape in my face every time he turned to admire his face in the mirror. Please don't put me through that." Cue the puppy face. Vriska pouted her lips and opened her eyes, which her glasses framed quite nicely. When the Capricorn didn't speak, she maintained her face and even quivered her lower lip. To kick it to the next step, she pushed her eyebrows just slightly closer together.

Vriska's slender arm rested on Gamzee's, covering the available patch of skin for the temporary tattoo of knowledge that he was creating. Gamzee's large hands flew up and pushed Vriska away, much like an owner trying to complete work while a pushing a puppy pranced hyperactively around the textbooks and papers away. Vriska's soft cheeks were now squished, and it looked like the two were engaged in some sort of mini wrestling match in their seats.

"Gamzee. Gamzeeee, please. You can't say no to this face. Just look at it."

Gamzee finally gave in with a chuckle. "Alright, fine, motherfucker. But only if you promise to stop making such hideous faces at me," he teased. Vriska pouted harder, so he retorted that, of course, he was joking and she was adorable, if that would please her.

"Say it again." "Say what mother fucking again?" "That I'm cute." "I didn't say you were cute." "Adorable, fine." "Fine, motherfucker. You're ador- A DORK." He playfully pushed harder on her face to put some distance between them before she gave him a concussion with her textbook.

"Now, if you'd try to stop clawing out my mother fucking eyes, you can either follow me home after school, or pesterChum my ass off." Vriska had been curious as to what the boy's room looked like, and she wouldn't mind skipping some babysitting duty for her neighbors, who would obviously not leave her alone if they knew she was home. Plus, it didn't seem like Gamzee would do more good than harm to her grade. Time to put people to good use; who said you can't be friends and manipulate each other at the same time?

[-]

The last bell rang and Vriska darted out of her last class half away; in the middle of the lectures, she had half paid attention to Karkat Vantas, the loud mouth whose vulgar vocabulary always found their way into everyone, to see if he, too, could provide extra help for studying with Gamzee. However, throughout the entire lecture, she could feel his boredom and hatred for the education system piercing the deepest corners of the room, so she thought she'd pass. _Guess it'll just be me and Gamzee tonight then_, she thought.

Gamzee had scribbled a semi-cryptic message on Vriska's arm right before they parted their way from the class they had together. In reality, it was more messy, capricious, and random, but she supposed that's what made it cryptic. To her, the 'honk's and strange smiley faces meant nothing. "And why don't they have eight eyes," she mumbled.

She followed the trail of 'honk's on her arm's map to the front door, which was marked by an extra emphasized ":o)". To her dismay, though, she could not find her makeshift tutor through the crowd that seemed to have started to gather around the entrance. Their collective whispers were so chaotic that Vriska could not make out what the commotion was all about, so she shoved her way into the center of the crowd.

Unsurprisingly, Gamzee was in the middle. He laid plank-style, face down on the floor, blocking the right most door. Sure, people could have used the seven other doors that lined the entrance, but spectacles are spectacles and troll nature kicks in when curiosity is spiked. Vriska continued staring at the rigid boy, who didn't move. After about a minute and a half of contemplation, Vriska became annoyed at the wasted time and nudged Gamzee's left arm with her foot.

He didn't budge.

Vriska quickly knelt down and shook the Capricorn's shoulders. "Yo, Gamzee. Not funny. Gamzee, you okay? You still have to help me with work, man. Dude. DUDE. DO YOU NEED PIE OR SOMETHIN-"

Gamzee's shoulder moved ever-so-slightly. The front of the crowd that saw the movement hushed their guesses for why he was lying down. They all stared at the body as if they were waiting for the conclusion in a suspense - murder movie. "Gamzee?" The shoulder moved again; his head turned a little to the side. Several people leaned in to get firsthand accounts of the situation for interesting conversations later. A few others from the back of the crowd pushed and shoved after noticing the sudden silence in the front.

"Honk."

In the most anticlimactic way possible, he slowly got onto his fours, straightened himself up, and stood. The crowd looked at the school stoner and groaned; no interesting story of drug overdose or murder today. Vriska steamed and started to throw punches to Gamzee's arm. "You JERK. You freaking JERK. I thought you were dead. I thought MY GRADE was dead." Unbeknownst to her, her face had turned into a slight pout, much like the earlier one from class when she sat with Gamzee.

Gamzee extended a hand and caught one of her fists, but Vriska pushed back with double the amount of force. The stoner pushed her fist slightly to the side of him and let go, causing Vriska to stumble. He caught her by the waist before she fell all the way. "What the hell!"

"I'm motherfucking sorry, Serket. Just thought you'd need some motherfuckin' help finding me, so I made a crowd. I assumed you wouldn't have had enough intelligence to read my map. Look." He pinched Vriska's mapped arm a bit, and Vriska began to expect a secret image to appear from the scribbles. Instead, her skin just deformed due to his squeezing. "Well! What am I supposed to see?"

"Oh, motherfucking nothing. I just wanted to pinch your fat."

Vriska flew into another round of punch shots, but were all miraculously evaded by Gamzee, who contorted his face into a strange 'derp' expression and screamed "HoNk" every time she missed. His ridiculously demeanor quickly cooled the Scorpio's anger. "You…. YOU…"

After a final punch, Vriska gave in and let out a chuckle.

"That's right, let out that motherfuckin' awful sounding chuckle," he teased. "But you know you love it," she replied. Vriska ended her sarcastic volley with a flirty wink.

"Oh, someone's playing some motherfucking crazy redrom games with me, isn't she?"

Gamzee chuckled, and threw his hand onto Vriska head, messing up her hair. She flailed and screamed, drawing attention from a few people who had stepped away from the crowd earlier to see if a sudden twist would come and something tragic would happen so they could have _something_ interesting to talk about later. The more noise she made, the more Gamzee teased her. He ended up grabbing horns and shaking her head back and forth.

"Come on, let's head over to my motherfucking chill place."


	3. sporadic

Contrary to what Vriska, and probably half the school's population, Gamzee's house was not a dilapidated, rotting mess of wood. The house wasn't too big, but wasn't exactly cramped either; just the perfect size for a family. She admired the way the trees were shaped: slightly macabre, but still artistic. It especially intrigued her that a tree could _even_ be shaped macabre-y. There were no flowers, but it wasn't like Vriska was into frail things that came and died. She believed real beauty lied in how strongly one stood out despite the seasons and anything else that came at them at full force. Screw the flowers.

Gamzee walked up to his door and simply opened it. It would seem that the Makara family did not feel like anyone would burglarize their house soon, and therefore locks were highly unnecessary. Vriska stepped in, and was slightly disappointed by how average the furniture was. There was a large hallway, which divided into separate large rooms by the special placement of columns. When one entered the house, they could pretty much see everything that was on the ground floor.

"Wow Makara, not even a speck of white makeup anywhere. And no clown stuff, too. Are you sure this is your house? I mean, you didn't even have a key, if you know what I'm getting at. BREAKING AND ENTERING. BREAKING AND ENTERIIIIING!" Vriska was going to get the upper hand in their passive aggressive war of teasing. Gamzee gently nudged her into the wall, and commented on how the house was now finally dirtied by her clothes.

"Well, Gamzee, I'm _sooo_ sorry I have graced your house with my residue." "So you admit you have residue. Gross! Get the motherfucking hell out of my house!" More shoving ensued.

A spiral staircase was located in the back, left corner of the house. Its elegant polished wood finish did not match the 'feel' that Gamzee Makara gave off at school. People who didn't know him would get a kick out of this. In fact, the stairs were so marvelous that they didn't even make much creaking noise as they inched up the stairs, arm-in-arm, engaged in their own version of makeshift Street Fighters.

They both crashed into Gamzee's room, which reflected his outer exterior better. Dark clown figures hung over his bed, probably luring the Capricorn to sleep with their piercing, murderous gaze every night. One green clown, with the body of the deformed caterpillar, was especially close to his respitecoon. "Hey Gamzee. I bet that's your matesprit right there, right?"

Vriska continued to glance around at the messy room, amused by its contrast to the rest of the house. Suddenly, she became curious. "Hey Gamzee, don't your parents care that you've basically defiled this house, _just as you've defiled my notes earlier_?" Gamzee turned his head and looked out the strange window with twelve openings towards the sea. Vriska immediately felt like she'd cross another line. Third strike for the day. One more and she'd hit home-run.

"Well, you wouldn't have motherfuckin' saw me last night at Fusion if my father cared. If you ever see him, most people call him Goatdad- oh wait, no one ever sees fucking sees him." He sat on the edge of his respitecoon, careful not to slime up his clothes just yet. He solemnly replied, "He's never home, so-" "SO THAT MEANS YOU KEEP THIS PLACE CLEAN ALL BY YOURSELF!"

Vriska obviously meant the floor below theirs; Gamzee's room was cluttered with empty Faygo bottles, and piles of horns sporadically decorated random areas of the room. "And what's with all of these bottles?"

"Funny story. So you see how these motherfucking bottles are plastic right?" Gamzee's tone changed back to the carefree clown that Vriska had talked to before; this boy really knew how to keep the mood up. "Well, I think it's a miracle that I came to love these beautiful motherfucking plastic bottles. Glass bottles aren't my motherfucking thing, you know? And why? Miracles told me. Last night, I was attacked by a glass bottle. This is a war. THIS. IS. A. MOTHERFUCKING. WAR." The less sense the clown's speech made, the more Vriska knew he was 'back to normal' and not sulking about daddy issues.

She began to crack up and even fell back into the larger of the horn piles, which surprisingly was not uncomfortable. As she laughed, her sides and her bottom began to push on several horns, creating a cacophonic, yet slightly amusing, symphony for the clown. He plunged in after her, crashing right into her torso. Gamzee thrusts his hands into her hair and wiggled around.

"Gamzee, Gamzee g- get off me! Hahaha." "That's payback for earlier by the stairs in the school." "No seriously, I have something to tell you! Hahaha! Get off! That- HAHA. Tha- That TICKLES! Stop!" A light cobalt blush appeared on the Scorpio's face, and Gamzee scrambled off to the other side of the horn pile to allow the spiderbitch her five minute spotlight. "Alright. En – motherfucking – lighten me."

"So," Vriska puffed between breathes and small giggles. "That bottle, haha. I threw that bottle- Well, no, I dropped that bottle, but I supposed it doesn't make a difference right? Where did the bottle hit you? Do you want me to kiss it better?" Gamzee threw some horns into her face lightly, and told her that her flirting was not going to him to tutor her more than what was required for the test, which meant other subjects were off limits. Certain times in the day were labeled 'clown time' and no one else gets to experience 'clown time' but the clown himself.

"Well, that was my confession. Now, **tell me your grades**."

Gamzee sighed, giving into the stubborn girl's demands and grabbed a crumpled, dirty piece of paper off the floor. He threw it in Vriska's direction. She unfolded the mess and was baffled by what she saw. "Wha-" "READ IT AND MOTHERFUCKING WEEP." Knowing that he had basically knocked down every stereotype that society placed on him, he rolled around on the floor like an anime character, making random anime sound effects and occasionally flinging whatever was in his way in some direction.

Vriska's eyes scanned over the sheet. All A's. All motherfucking A's. "That's it, bro. TUTOR ME." She threw a couple playful winks and sat next to the boy, who was now lying face down like he did at the end of school today. "Only if you motherfucking kiss me first."

The Scorpio was thrown back by the demand. Of all the guys she met, this one was by far the most forward. And to think that any man was more forward than the melodramatic, metrosexual Eridan Ampora himself was a bit of a stretch. She remembered when Eridan and her first met, he had tried to charm her with his wavy speech, showing off his might and slinging empty threats around. It took him a full twenty four hour period to declare his feelings of redrom, to which Vriska bluntly replied with a sharp "no". Of course, this lead to a great social tug-of-war, where Vriska always held the upper hand in being more devious, but this memory was far from relevant, so she pushed it out of her mind.

The clown continued to stare at her with his dark indigo-purple eyes. Those dark dark dark-ity dark alluring eyes. Without out another word, she began to lean into him, narrowing her eyes into a seductive gaze. The Capricorn began to close his eyes, too. Vriska gently raised her arm, which had been injured in earlier shenanigans, and brushed the clown's face with her cold fingers. The coldness gave him a small shudder, or so that was how the girl took the clown's strange, sporadic movements to be. Her other hand reached up and grabbed the magnificent horns. Vriska pulled Gamzee towards her.

Gamzee Makara suddenly sprung his eyes open and shoved a horn between their lips. As Vriska bent in towards what she believed was to be the alluring lips of Gamzee, she plunged lips-first into the horn, which produced an ironic, deflated-sounding 'honk'. She kept her lips there for a few seconds, unable to process the situation; Vriska, _**the**_ sex icon of the school population, had just gotten cockblocked by a cheap, mass produced object of annoyance. The moment settled in, and she blushed so intensely that Gamzee almost believed for a second that she may be choking on the horn.

He pulled the toy away and stared at his newfound study partner's face. "What's motherfucking wrong, bro?" The look that crossed his face resembled a stoner that had just inhaled five cans of paint thinner and was about to cram some more permanent markers up his nose. A derp-y smile began to inch on his face, and from his demeanor Vriska guessed that he believed this he had done nothing wrong. She sat in the same position some more, feeling that the upper-hand-in-teasing meter was now about to burst so far into Gamzee's side that any chance of the dial ever turning back to hers had gone into the abyss known as Gamzee's attention span.

The blush did not dissipate. The embarrassed girl turned ninety degrees as to not face the boy, grabbed his arm, and threw it onto her lap to study, as if it were a detached object- in fact, Vriska would have loved to detach it then and there. Oh, would those detention happy guardians at the school get a kick out of this; another excuse to whip out some 'protective gear' to swing around and terrorize kids with. "_Watch out, we've got a lunatic here_," she pictured the guards screaming as they swung their spiked bats around 'for their own safety'.

"Let that bat hit him. Let that bat hit him," she mumbled. Gamzee snapped back into reality, and began to softly pat Vriska's head semi-apologetically. She secretly pouted, and continued to stare at the notes. The shorthands and scribbles, neatly written next to ':o)' shaped bullet points would have made more sense if she knew what all the acronyms and strange symbols meant.

"Come here, motherfucker." He pulled her arm towards his direction. Vriska began to scoot towards him, but gave in a fight to know that she was not completely willing to make up with him just yet for making her feel so embarrassed. _And seriously, who would pass up _these_ lips, _her darted looks said.

She ended up sitting next to Gamzee with both of their backs rested up against a mountain of bottles and balled up papers. "Alright," Gamzee cooed uncharacteristically.

"Hmph."

"Bro, you can't stay mad at a motherfuckin' bro for messing around." "You're lucky you're just so fucking out of it that I don't unleash my inner fury and throw you off a cliff. You're lucky that I don't curse you. I will let you feel my mother's fury, so Gog help me. Oh no-" Vriska had forgotten to obtain some nutrient rich food for her mother; she'd definitely hear about this later. She explained that her mother would go into awful temper tantrums if hungry – and not just the stomp-your-legs-around tantrums, either. It'd seem that Vriska had taken up more motherly responsibilities than her own guardian. Gamzee shot his hand into the pile behind them and produced a strangely decorated communication device. After hitting a couple of buttons, he reassured Vriska that it was taken care of.

"Doesn't mean I'm still not angry at you. Hmph." She continued to pout for she was starting to like the attention that Gamzee gave her, even if it was almost as if he wanted to act as random and unexpected as possible to be ironic. Actually, she didn't believe he was being ironic at all; Gamzee Makara really was just a fucking random-as-fuck clown, who was high off his own highness. Had it been any normal guy, she would have unleashed her inner demon and swept him into a corner with her stinging retorts.

And to Gamzee, if Vriska Serket had been any other average girl, he would have scared her away already. The company that each troll provided for each other – strangely – made the other feel at ease. In a strange sort of way, because both of them were so different, they didn't feel odd letting loss and forgetting about expectations of troll society. No matter how sporadic or menacing it was, things somehow felt as ease.

Vriska occasionally jabbed a random area of Gamzee's are to inquire about the scrawls, to which Gamzee would occasionally response with a 'pained look' just to mess with Vriska even though her nails didn't really hurt that much.

Amidst their semi-academic squabbling, they did not hear the footsteps that loudly entered the house and rang through the rooms. They did not hear the stairway creak because it was so elegantly and finely made. They did not hear the quiet hushes and giggles. They did not hear any of this.

The door to Gamzee's room creaked open and a gray hand gripped its edge. Vriska suddenly sat straight up and determined which of the objects in the pile behind her would cause the most damage. Either the broken hardware of some sort or the unicycle would suffice. Yes, she would use the unicycle. She was ready to protect the savior of her grade. She was going to protect her friend.

Just as she was about to spring up, Gamzee jumped up and darted for the door. He tackled the figure in the arch way to the ground just outside his door. Whoever he or she was, he let out a dissatisfied, loud grunt.

Vriska, stunned by the sudden lunge, sat still and listened intently for any sign of struggle; no way in hell was she going to just sit there. The moment she heard more movement, she-

"MOTHERFUCKER, YOU'RE HERE." "FUCKASS, OF COURSE I AM."

Serket recognized that yelling; she recognized it well because the annoying loudmouth was hard to ignore when you tried to sleep in class every day. One cannot forget the person who always latched his strange, vulgar vocabulary onto you. Karkat Vantas and Gamzee Makara entered the room, arm in arm, like two soldiers returning from the battlefield. Gamzee gave a chuckle, and Karkat returned with his version of a laugh, which sounded more like a constipated grunt than anything else to Vriska.

"What-"

"Motherfucker, I forgot to tell you. My motherfucking bro here is joining us for studying."

"STOP SAYING MOTHERFUCKER. STOP CALLING ME YOUR BRO. WE'RE NOT BROS. JUST THROW THOSE BOOKS OPEN AND SPEW YOUR INFORMATION AT ME," the troll screamed. Despite being significantly smaller than Gamzee, he seemed to believe that he was the alpha troll in the room, which supposedly granted him the power to boss others around.

"Haha, don't mind the motherfucke-" "FUCKASS, I SAID DON'T CALL ME THAT. AND THROW ALL OF THIS TRASH AWAY. IS THAT FAYGO! I TOLD YOU THAT FUCKING ROTS YOUR BRAINS OUT. GOG, CLEAN THIS MESS UP." "-This motherfuckin' Karkat is my bro, but he's just shy about it." Karkat continued screaming at Gamzee, while Gamzee continued to talk louder so Vriska could hear.

Nothing made sense. How can the clown stand someone so irritating? Who was saying what? Vriska stared deer-in-headlight style at the boys.

Suddenly, the door creaked open some more. Another male troll appeared, hands behind his back and head bent a little towards the floor. Large horns protruded horizontally from his head. At first, Vriska couldn't make out his face, or what he was saying, but after a while she realized that he was trying to wiggle his way into the conversation.

"Ah, TAVBRO. YOU'RE MOTHERFUCKING HERE." "GET IN HERE FUCKASS." The two loud trolls burst into even louder chants, hugging and jumping.

Suddenly, Vriska understood jackshit.


	4. redrom games

Tavros Nitram was the shy person of the school, and Vriska would know this very well. Often irritated by his inability to speak up for himself, she pushed him along. Some sort of instinct told her that it was her duty – and her duty alone – to toughen the boy. She initiated these events with sarcastic jabs, which turned into full blown roleplaying sessions, but the two haven't spoken for a long while since the incident involving certain shenanigans.

Gamzee's room had now become a party of superlatives: the most shy, the most loud, the most manipulative, and the most likely-to-die-of-drug-overdose was gathered together in some sort of celebration of academic torture. An awkward pause settled as Vriska struggled to grab the right words.

An internal struggle ensued. Part of her wanted to retaliate against the sudden increase in volume, which slowly caused the precious seconds of her tutor sessions to be ticked away, with angry yelling and swearing. Another part did not want to get off on the wrong foot and make Gamzee upset for the fourth time today; there's only so many strikes you can make before you're out of the zone.

The four sat in a circle and threw their notes into a pilein the center. The mess that was created turned the Cancer loudmouth into an even rowdier person, whining consistently about how messy _everything_ was. Gamzee simply held up his arms like a flash mob participant. Tavros and Vriska sat with minimal contributions. Since no one seemed willing to break the stalemate of unproductivity, Tavros began to mumble something about going in order of the chapters to make sure they covered everything. When no one seemed to hear the boy, he tried once again.

"Guys, uh. Guys, so I, uh, think that we should, uh, maybe…."

"MOTHERFUCKERS, MY BRO HAS TO SPEAK." Gamzee suddenly declared. The room hushed, and Tavros gave his plan, which everyone agreed to. They all pulled out a textbook except Gamzee, who Vriska suspected probably had photographic memory and an IQ of infinity. There was nothing else the clown could do now that would throw her off; the longer someone is with someone as eccentric and random as Gamzee, the faster they learn to always expect the unexpected. In fact, the expected was unexpected.

The three who had textbooks began to read the first chapter in silence. Not surprisingly, Vantas burst into another round of incomprehensible screaming; something about boredom and an insult to mother nature by making her babies into these disgustingly bound pieces of crap. In response, Tavros softly reminded him about school responsibilities and whatnot. And…. Gamzee was Gamzee. This was the most impossible atmosphere to study in.

The harder Vriska tried to read, the louder they got. She reread the same sentence four times, each time slower than the last in hopes of digesting the information. When that didn't work because every syllable in her mind was penetrated by "FUCKASS" and "honk", she tried to read it out loud. It seemed, though, that she would not even get to the first punctuation mark, let alone memorize any information, so she stood up angrily and trotted off.

Karkat and Gamzee watched her disappear into the hallway and neither reacted. It didn't seem like their place to interfere with a person's study habits. But Tavros was concerned about Vriska grades and whatever cute, goody-two-shoes stuff he thought of, so he crept up and followed her.

In the hallway, Vriska gripped her textbook close to her. The weight of the words bared down on her, mocking them with their existence. _You'll never understand me. You'll never know me_, they said. A doomed feeling overcame her, and eventually she gave into the idea that she would flunk the test. As she descended down the stairs, she felt a cold hand grip her wrist.

She turned around to see the bull-horned, shy boy.

"Uh, hey, uh, Vriska." There was hesitation in his speech. He took this moment to be the best time to patch things up. A light brown blush appeared, and he looked down. Eye contact was a definite no-no. "It's been, uh, a while since we talked, uh, right?" While Vriska did not feel awkward often, the feeling was becoming extremely oppressing as the moments passed. She had to exert massive amounts of effort to not punch his face and scream "JUST SPIT IT OUT".

"You look, you look, uh, really nice." He blushed harder. Vriska's mouth contorted, confused by the boy's reaction. Before she could confirm her suspicions on why he was being so strange, he quickly switched the topic. Tavros shyly grabbed Vriska's wrist and pulled her closer to Gamzee's room, ushering her to return. His face was now so brown with blush that he looked like a suffocated corpse.

There were two choices here for Vriska. One, walk away and either risk Tavros blushing so hard because he was grabbing her wrist and trying to tug her back that his brain explodes, or two, turn around and head back to study with Gamzee. It had seemed that the noise from above had died down, so to avoid splattering Gamzee's walls with brown, Vriska grudgingly went back with Tavros, who still clung onto her wrist.

As the entered the room, they were greeted with suspicious "oooos". The Cancer and the Capricorn began to chant "matesprit, matesprit, matesprit", to which Vriska forcefully jerked her wrist away and Tavros mumbled incoherently. "Tavbro, you motherfuckin' burst an artery or something? You're so motherfuckin' brown."

"Uh, no. I, uh, I just, uh." "DAMN IT, JEGUS. LET'S JUST GET THIS OVERWITH."

"Whatever you say, best friend." Gamzee was the first to sit back down. Vriska crawled closer to him, putting significant distance between her and the other two boys; if not for the desire to remain on Gamzee's good side, she would have pummeled the two idiots into oblivion, knocking them to Derse and back. The remainder of the night, Gamzee spoke mostly to Vriska against his will since she basically demanded his full attention. Not a single syllable of his knowledge would escape her ears; no way was she going to fail this class. Her pride was at stake and she would do anything to obtain her goals.

[xxxxxx]

The bell rung obnoxiously and trolls fled into the hallways declaring joys for the upcoming long weekend. It was Her Imperial Condescension's wriggling day, which meant that all trolls would leave whatever duty they had to worship her. Of course, there was only so much land that Her Imperial Condescension could watch over, so most people took the day off as a freebie and relaxed. Gamzee trudged down the hallway in his awful posture. His locker was probably close to- pie. And he supposes that after – pie – school, he would head – pie – home and probably –pie.

There was an absolute lack of coherent thought in Gamzee's head; he had forgotten to purchase more slime and Faygo the night before while, ironically, sitting around being high off of pie. Now he was suffering from withdrawal and any slight disturbance to his atmosphere could set him off. Miraculously, he unlocked his locker and withdrew his backpack, which hung limply due to its lack of books. _Books_, he thought, _who needs books right now?_

A strong arm slapped Gamzee's shoulder and he flung around in irritation. To his surprise, Vriska stood before him holding a piece of paper to her chest. After the study session, Gamzee was sure he'd never hear of the local spiderbitch again, let alone see her, but here she was. And unlike the last time they meet in the locker area, she looked absolutely peppy.

"Gamzee. Gamzee. Guess what, bro? Gamzee!" Without waiting for an answer, she thrust the paper in his face. Even though the page was too close for the clown to discern the contents of, he had sneaking suspicions that it was the test they had studied for.

"LOOK. YOU STUPID BUTTHEAD. LOOK. IT'S AN A. AN A PLUS!" At this point, Vriska looked like she was about to bounce off the walls and kiss the floor. She looked like this was the first 'A' she had gotten in her life. "Motherfucke-"

"My name is NOT motherfucker. It's Vriska-motherfucking-Serket."

"So 'motherfucker' is still in there."

Again, Gamzee still held the upperhand in retorts and jabs; the Scorpio was never going to beat him. To hide her recent defeat in their ongoing came of sarcastic retorts, she leaned into the Capricorn. "So, how are we going to celebrate," she seductively cooed.

The clown hunched over even more, contorting his spine to inhuman shapes. Sure, Vriska's test had received an A, but anything about an 98% was considered an A. He jammed his hand inside his backpack and produced the only piece of paper inside. On it, a large 100 was circled three times and underlined four. The teacher had even humoured the boy and taped a cute clown sticker next to grade. In messy handwriting, Vriska could discern an attempt at spelling the word 'honk'.

"So, Vriska MOTHERFUCKING Serket." He put an extra emphasis on her new middle name. "As you were saying, how are WE going to celebrate OUR grades now?" That's two more notches towards Gamzee's ever growing upperhand score. Vriska internally gave up the fight and admitted that Gamzee was just better at getting the upperhand in pretty much everything. "How about a motherfucking kiss?"

Vriska was as taken back by this request as the time when they were in Gamzee's room. She quickly grabbed his collar and pulled him in, but made sure to barely avoid touching his lips. Her blue mouth brushed softly against his cheek and she stopped abruptly. Next to his ear, she whispered lowly, making sure her lower lip occasionally touched his ear as she spoke. "Not. In. Public." She had now initiated a dare, and it was not clear if Gamzee would accept or not.

Through half glazed eyes, Gamzee stared at the girl who had now dared him to make the first move on her. He knew that she had given up in their war on who had the best and last retort, so now she was moving into her territory: redrom games. He knew this was her trademark for it was one of the only snippets of gossip be believed firmly.


	5. dark carnival

Something flickered in Gamzee's eyes. It was different from the usual glazed look; she recognized the minute change, but she couldn't quite put a finger on what was going through Gamzee's head. It'd seem that after she initiated her non-verbal dare, he had snapped out of his pie withdrawal as if he were never addicted. Like she had thought before, expect the unexpected.

He gently caressed her face. This time, she tried to maintain eye contact to make sure he wasn't going to throw a horn between their lips or some other unexpected shenanigan. He leaned, in, but only gently kissed her cheek. His lips were slightly chapped, but soft enough none the less. He pulled away and the flicker in his eye was gone, replaced by a sort of bittersweet look. Vriska couldn't tell what was going through his mind, let alone decipher why a simple kiss on the cheek would seem bittersweet. Of course, she had a knack for being paranoid since her mother was on her case all the time and she had to know how to 'read the atmosphere', but perhaps the girl was reading too much into her friend.

The Capricorn pulled away and returned to his blank demeanor; typical Gamzee. It was as if he had just done nothing and remained stoned to the ground.

Vriska didn't blush; she probably should have, but she was distracted by Makara's reactions. This was not how other guys had approached her before. Usually when she kissed a suitor, they were hungry, like starved predators who wanted to keep their prey all to themselves. But Gamzee seemed melancholy. She had hoped she hadn't knocked a fifth ball into the field of offenses because she really didn't want to get off on the wrong foot with Gamzee now.

The clown was different from everyone else and it excited Vriska that she'd finally found a friend worthy of, well, being a friend. Most other girls were often as, if not more, manipulative as Vriska; they were vicious or downright sociopathic. The men – and an image of Eridork flashed through her mind – were typical male trolls. Gamzee had become a great moirail, or at least to Vriska, it seemed like they had entered a moirallegiance.

"You know, uh, you didn't have to if you didn't want to. I was only kidding," she whispered softly. On the inside, she slapped herself for starting to sound like Tavros.

"You're starting to sound like Tavbro," he said, right on cue. "Naw, motherfucker. Just thinking about stuff." The glazed demeanor stayed.

Spontaneously, he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. Vriska didn't even expect something that unexpected, and all of these contradictory 'predictions' and 'expectations' about Gamzee were starting to confused her and mess with her head. "Wh- What are you doing!"

"You seemed kind of down, so I kind of motherfucking picked you up." The clown was actually funny. _Or punny_, she thought.

"W- Well," she spoke, "I'm now up. So put me back down."

Perhaps the wordplay was too much for Gamzee, for he actually began to laugh loudly. It just occurred to Vriska that she hadn't heard him actually laugh before. Of course, there have been chuckles as they battled each other via pulls and shoves from time to time. And let's not forget the 'honks'. No one that knew Gamzee Makara well could forget the 'honk's. But, his laugh sounded so natural and carefree that it sort of started to rub off on Vriska. She smiled secretly away from his field of vision, enjoying this moment of bonding.

"Naw, motherfucker. Just chill and let my chivalry do the miracles." Vriska had no idea what that meant; _was that even a sensible sentence_, she wondered. "What, are you going to make trees explode with the amount of chivalry you're absolutely oozing?" _No, that made about as much sense as his statement_, Vriska groaned internally. She didn't know what was going on and was rather confused, but she was enjoying such a – as Gamzee would put it – chill time with him. Things never had to make that much sense with Gamzee.

For once, Vriska was at ease. Without the responsibility of dealing with her psychopathic mother, without the responsibility of school, without feeling like she had to push her friends along the path of being strong while keeping her dignity up, she felt free.

"Where are we going?"

"To the dark carnival, brother."

[…..]

Leave it to Gamzee to be overly dramatic with his macabre clown theme. Vriska thought that the Dark Carnival was some obscure, satanic ritual gathering off in the deepest, darkest corners of the city, but it was the carnival in the town square. In fact, if balloons of Condense and grub sauce were macabre (though the former could be argued), then Vriska was Lord English, the terrifying demon himself. "This is so dark, Gamzee."

"Come on, Vriska-"

Vriska stopped mid-stride. "Gamzee. You said my name! You didn't call me 'motherfucker'!" Perhaps Gamzee had said Vriska's name before, but she probably did not notice. She liked the way her named rolled off his tongue; the sound had a slight slur to it, but at the same time, it held a 'normal' quality. Vriska based this judgment off how other people called her. Teachers would always sound annoyed; girls would always sound vengeful and jealous; guys would sound lustful; her mother would simply screech and fling whatever large object was near her. But the way Gamzee said it was _**normal**_.

There were so many things people in life take for granted and perhaps normal communication was one of them. Being born into a family with only a psychotic mother and a house far from other friends, it was hard to let people know the real Vriska. For, who in their right mind would venture into the cavernous building: dark, damp, and occasionally echoed with screeches of a crazed mom? Before Vriska even had a chance to express herself, people had already formed her 'personality' in their mind.

Perhaps that was why she felt such a strong connection with Gamzee; no one probably knew what his home looked like, but they also judged him before getting to know him. Such a superficial world.

"Alright, VRISKA." He emphasized her name. Vriska turned away and looked down to hide a small smile. When she looked up, she saw a colourfully decorated ring toss stand. "Gamzee. GAMZEE! I want to play. I waaaaaant to plaaaay," Vriska cooed and tugged on Gamzee's arm. If Gamzee was surprised that the local spiderbitch was this childish deep down, he didn't show it. "Alright, motherfucker, let's go."

Vriska initially let out a small pout when Gamzee returned to her former, crude nickname, but quickly recovered when he started to push her in the direction of the stand. "Five rings, please mothe-" Vriska slapped her hand over his mouth.

"Watch it, Makara. I'm not going to let your dirty mouth hurt my image." "Alright. Five rings. PLEASE."

Gamzee threw the pile of rings on the table and stared at Vriska, suggesting that she should take the first throw. "Aaa! Me?" Vriska opened her eyes in surprised, and then looked down at the ground. She didn't want to admit that even at this age, she had not participated in a lot of common childhood games due to her mother's neediness. Gamzee saw a small presence of concern and grabbed a ring. He smiled one of his stoner smiles to reassure Vriska that whatever was bothering her was not that big of a problem. In a large perspective, no one would have cared if Vriska missed the bottle, but her pride was at stake, especially since it seemed like her and Gamzee were indirectly competing with each other.

Gamzee lazily flung his ring, which hit the end of the neck of the bottle and bounced to the floor with a harmonious _clink_. Vriska huffed, believing that since Gamzee, with so little effort, got the ring so close to its target, she would be able to succeed with just a little more concentration. She grabbed the ring with a smug smile and tossed it. The hoop soared far over the bottles and hit the back of the stand. Her throw was so far off that even the stand's owner could not help but let out a small chuckle.

She blushed pale blue and motioned for Gamzee to go. He flung again, this time flinging too far to the left and missing the bottles just like Vriska. She let out a triumphant yelp, for if she couldn't do it, then neither should Gamzee. The competitiveness was overwhelming. Vriska looped her index finger around one of the last two loops and twirled it for a few seconds to get a feel for the weight before flinging it. When it seemed like the hoop would fall down a bottle's neck, it bounced right off and landed on the floor.

She groaned extremely audibly.

The last ring now laid on the table. Since Gamzee paid for the rings, Vriska was going to let him have it, but he nudged her arm, signaling that she should take it. "This is probably the first time you're played this, right, Vriska?"

The combination of having been called out for a lack of experience in life's smallest pleasures and having him call out her name like that caused her to turn her head. She turned her head a little away from Gamzee and tossed the ring up and down. The boy took this action to be a sign of nervousness, so when the ring came down again and Vriska caught it, he gripped her hand loosely.

The Scorpio let out a small gasp, but let the Capricorn take control. He moved her wrist back and forth three times to calculate whatever clowns calculated while doing carnival things and flung the ring without another word. Spidergirl stared at the ring fly and loop in the air. As it approached the bottles, it slipped into the crack where four bottles met. Just as Vriska was about to sigh disappointingly, the ring bounced back up and miraculously ended up wrapped around one of the bottle's necks. It bounced it bit, back and forth, on the neck, but finally came to a full stop.

She turned around and stared at the lackadaisical boy beside her, who had flung her wrist without much effort. The stand's owner groaned silently and reluctantly asked the two what prize they wanted. Gamzee pointed to the giant, fluffy grub with a green hat and floppy wings, retrieved the prize, and threw it at Vriska.

Vriska Serket had never been so ecstatic in her life. "How did you know I loved Pupa Pan!" She buried her face in the synthetic fabric of the grub and rubbed it endearingly over her face. Luckily she wasn't wearing makeup, for she decided ever since meeting Gamzee that makeup was about as useful as a calculator was to her new friend in terms of building their friendship. Her arms were wrapped around the torso of the fluffy grub and she squeezed it hard, watching the grub return to its original shape again and again. "It's so fluffyyyy."

"Someone's a motherfucking child."

The girl pouted at the tease and buried her face inside the stuffed toy. "Hmph. Shut up! No one asked you," she muffled through the grub. Without making eye contact, she grabbed his wrist and pulled him toward the rollercoaster. The boy reluctantly followed with a smug look, glad that he had just discovered one of Alteria's biggest secrets: the spiderbitch was a spiderchild.

For the rest of the day, the Capricorn humoured the Scorpio in her quest to relive the childhood she never had. In a sense, perhaps this was more unexpected than anything Gamzee would have done, but he didn't mind being the least weird for the day. His new friend was enjoying her time; how she acted now was a lot different than what he had heard and saw in the hallways of school. Just like how he was misunderstood sometimes, he guesses that she was just like him.

She was like the small, weak flowers in front of his house; fragile, but covered in thorns to survive in a world dictated by rigid caste systems and a kill-or-be-killed attitude. It was all about the image.

The "Dark Carnival" had many rides, despite the cramped size of the town square. When both trolls were dead tired from yelling and pushing each other around, they stood in the line for the last ride of the day. The choices were between the ferris wheel and the tea cups. Ironically, Vriska chose the teacups and sat with Gamzee in the giant china maroon imitation.

Gamzee spun the cup around rapidly and his partner tilted her head back. The sky had turned into a warm orange-red mixture with a slight hit of magenta dispersed here and there, snuggled between the clouds. The world seemed so round and responsibilities seemed so insignificant as her body hugged the back of the cup. Her hair flew around even more haphazardly, creating more and more knots, but that was not a concern. Leaves spun above Vriska, and she wondered if Gamzee had ever experienced something so small, but so relaxing. She sat straight back up, but his head was already tilted back; the boy was both spinning their ride and enjoying it: a calm chivalry.

The cups started to slow down, passive aggressively telling all of its participants to get the hell off the ride. Gamzee had to hoist the girl up, for she dizzily spun around like a drunk troll; even when Gamzee was this drunk, he could support himself better. The Scorpio clung onto her friend and giggled, occasionally allowing him to carry all of her weight just to feel pampered.

"Gamzee, Gamzee. This was – hahahaha – so fun."

"Honk."

"We should do this again sometime. Take me to another Dark Carnival. TAKE ME TO ANOTHER DARK CARNIVVAAALLLL." Her grub hung over her free arm and bounced off her side when she walked. When it seemed like Vriska could stand on her own, or at least she'd know how to catch her own fall with a fluffy grub plushie, Gamzee let go.

"Got yourself, motherfucker? Or do I have to hoist you up again? Honk."

"Stop being punny and let's go get some food. I'm hungr-"

Gamzee grabbed Vriska's wrist with his right hand and her waist with his left. Vriska could not react fast enough or process what was going on before Gamzee kissed her. He closed his eyes and gently placed his lips on hers. Because he was slightly taller, his messy hair fell partly on her face, obscuring Vriska's vision. He pulled her closer into him and didn't let go.

The surprised girl shook her arms a bit at first and tense, but immediately loosened up and fell into her moirail. With the arm that wasn't in Gamzee's hand, she pushed his hair out of the way, grabbed his long horns atop his head, and pulled his lips harder into hers. The grub plushie, which was squished between the sides of the two, hung his head sideways, its stitched smile gleaming in the setting sun.

The clown was the first to break the kiss. "There's your dare," he whispered in her ear in a low hushed voice. Vriska opened her eyes and did not see the school stoner anymore, but rather a very caring boy standing before her with oddly smeared make-up. For once, Gamzee held focus in his eyes and they stared intently into Vriska's. She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out, thus intensifying the blue blush that glowed on her cheeks.

"W-Wha- What are you staring at!" She pouted and pulled away from him. The Scorpio had told herself many times over to expect the unexpected, but she couldn't tell if what just happened was the former or the latter. Gamzee Makara had just broken Vriska and she stood there in a daze. He walked forward to check that his partner had not had a stroke, but once he took a step, Vriska lunged forward and captured his lips with hers.

"You- you stupid – motherfucker. Took you – long – enough," she gasped between breathes.

Vriska backed off for a second, afraid that she might just suffocate the boy. He looked at her, but the same bittersweet look he had when he had kissed her cheek earlier came back. Somewhere in her gut, Vriska knew that this was not how a guy should act. _Especially not after kissing someone like me_, she thought. Before she could ask, Gamzee embraced her and confirmed her suspicions.

In a low whisper, Gamzee actually broke Vriska this time.

"I've been enlisted by the Condense."


	6. no auspistice

Vriska stood before Gamzee. The sun had now almost completely disappeared behind the ferris wheel, so Gamzee's tall figure cast a looming shadow over the girl. She stared up at the clown, who – for once – did not return the eye contact. Gamzee continued to stare at the ground. His shoulder slumped and for the first time since Vriska met him, she actually felt like he was being serious. Given previous encounters and exchanges, Vriska was half expecting him to suddenly break the serious spell and nonchalantly scream 'honk' or ruffle her hair, teasing her about how she took almost every word he said to be true.

But, no, Gamzee didn't say another word. He stood his ground, unwilling to look at the girl who had just spent an eventful, exhilarating, exciting, and downright _CHILL_ day with him.

"What. What do you mean you're _enlisted_?"

"Vriska. It means the Condense wants to celebrate her wriggling day by expanding her rule. She wants a group of high bloods and possible subjuggulators as well as other trolls to inhabit a newly discovered land. I… I can't say no. I can't say motherfucking no."

Vriska stood there and realized what Gamzee was saying is true; given that the Condense really wanted to expand her rule, anyone who opposed her would be eliminated and their family would be, too. While Goatdad was never home, as Gamzee had said before, solemnly, he still existed and could be hurt. The sound of him saying her name for once without her having to correct his vocabulary didn't strike Vriska as much as it should.

She grabbed his collar to pull his face closer to hers. When his face was inches away, she held it there so he could look into her eyes. There were many difficult emotions running through both trolls' heads. Vriska, on one hand, could either kiss him again, or she could pull him in faster and give him a nice Spartan kick to the chest. Her robotic arm was raised part way, too. That arm could either greet his face gently or with force, much like her foot. Because the Scorpio was heavily conflicted on how to deal with the matter, she held the same position for a couple minutes, never breaking eye contact.

Gamzee stood there and saw the cobalt eyes looking into his. They darted between each of his magnificent purple eyes, hoping to find some sort of silver lining to his words, but he couldn't take away the angst and other mixed emotions in his partner's mind. He had never planned to kiss her or to take their moirallegiance – or at least that's what he saw their relationship to be – to other quadrants. He had never planned to be anything else but a manipulated tool for grade improvement since the beginning.

Vriska took the lack of words as a silent confirmation that he was leaving for real. "When. When are you leaving! Tell me, you motherfucker. Don't you dare lie to me." Gamzee let out a strained chuckle. The last time the girl before him declared that last statement, it was out of teasing curiosity about his grades; now the tables had turned and the syllables of her interrogation rolled out more like large, sharp boulders than anything else.

The harshness of her tone stung Gamzee, but he didn't display how much they struck at him. He wore the same smile he always had, but there was a forced element to it. He quietly whispered that the day of departure was only two weeks away. The letter which had dictated this arrived the day when both he and Vriska had that test, and when it came, he didn't feel like he'd be missed, so he didn't give it another thought until recently. That parchment now lay in his room, buried between bottles.

The metallic hand which was raised before now flung forward towards his face. Gamzee didn't flinch, but merely closed his eyes because he knew he should have just remained a chill juggalo until the day of enlistment came; juggalos should only believe in miracles and be mirthful. But no, he had sort of deviated from that path – just a little.

When he didn't feel the sting of the predicted slap, he opened his eyes. The Scorpio was now gently holding on to his horns and rubbing her fingers along the ridges gently. Her eyes, which usually held such self confidence and pride, were now narrowed and tearful. The beautiful cobalt eyes were now nothing more than diluted puddles of blue on Vriska's face; the fact that Gamzee's shadow covered her face made her eyes seem even more hazy.

The teenage girl continued to stroke her friend's horns, but she never said a word. Their faces were now so close….

Gamzee reached forward to wipe a tear away. His thumb brushed her cheek gently, but when all that did was spread a light blue hue over her face, he used his sleeve to pat her eyes dry. Their eyes met, and for a split second, Gamzee wanted to lean in once again; he had not planned for there to be any kisses in the first place, but now he had missed the mild intimacy with Vriska. Never in his life had someone been so different, but so similar, and this was a comfort he knew he'd miss the moment he left Alternia.

But he stopped himself. Anything he'd do now only antagonize the situation.

Metallic fingers stopped stroking Gamzee's horns. The girl backed away, never making a noise – not even a sniffle – during the entire encounter. She smiled a forced, confident smile and let out the fakest laugh she had even produced. "Good job, Gamzee Makara. You win. You have the upper hand in being the most unexpected. You are by far the best at making the most memorable retorts. And you know," she paused and took a huge breath, "I-"

The rest of the words wouldn't come up. Her tongue wasn't tied; she just didn't believe anything else should have been said. At this moment, Vriska knew that her pride meant nothing, but what good would it be to suddenly become so weak and emotional, she'd be no more than an overbearing figure, like her mother, or like a dying rare flower – weak and fragile – that constantly, annoyingly demanded attention and sympathy. He didn't have to know how she felt. Vriska thought about all her suitors and comforted herself with the fact that if she needed sympathy, it'd come in waves.

Without another word, she turned around and started to walk away. Gamzee reached out with his hand to grab her shoulder, but stopped; he had never told her how he felt, or that he had believed their friendship had become a moirallegiance – or perhaps to him, it was more than that. There were no words he could say now without breaking his image of a 'chill, mirthful' clown.

"Honk."

Vriska walked away coolly, as if nothing had just happened, and raised her middle finger to the sky. Gamzee couldn't see her face, and perhaps would never know, but she sniffled softly as she walked away; tears streamed down her face, but life had taught her that if she does not remain tough, she'll just get crushed by everyone else around her. There was no one she could tell this to and no one to comfort her; with one final sniffle, she began to sprint towards her house.

The scenery around her blurred; the buildings passed by as blobs of gray and the nearby trolls were nothing but colourful obstacles. Even though the town center was now where near Vriska's home and she was quickly beginning to become extremely out of breath, she did not stop.

Not when the transportation machines buzzed down the street, heading straight for her as she crossed without looking; not when she had accidentally tripped on protruding trash and sent herself tumbling into the hard floor; not when Karkat had seen her and actually called out her name without yelling to inquire about her day since he heard that her and his best friend were going to the carnival together; not even when Tavros, who saw her tear streaked face, grabbed her wrist and inquired.

Vriska dashed home and ran into the deepest and most isolated room in her house; Tavros had followed her the entire time, quietly calling out to her in his soft voice, but she didn't care.

As she ran into her house, she slammed the door, but it hit the ledge with so much force that instead of closing, it bounced back open. Vriska could not really care for that now, so she just found her room and sat down in the corner with her grub plushie. Her chest rose and fell rapidly, gasping for the air that she had robbed herself of for the last couple of minutes. The harder the Scorpio gasped, the more she began to whimper. Her breaths became heaves, and she began to cry a low wail that would not stop coming out.

Her blue tears dripped down onto the grub plushie, whose stitched smile seemed to mock her. Part of Vriska wanted to take out her anger on her new toy, but for some reason, she really didn't want to hurt it because….. _I don't know why_.

Vriska Serket hated herself. Vriska-motherfucking-Serket really motherfucking hated herself. She had now become the emotional weakling she had always tried to not let people she cared about become. If she was upset like this now, how would she survive adult troll society?

The door to the room creaked open, but Vriska didn't look up. Between her hiccups and cries, she had not even heard something so mundane. The bull horned boy stepped into the room and slowly walked toward the girl in the corner. He slowly bent down and laid a hand gently on her shoulder. Tavros' horns obscured the light, letting a huge shadow fall over Vriska.

The Scorpio was not expecting the sudden touch and change in lighting, so she lunged up and grabbed the boy by the throat. An initial look of surprised appeared because she had not expected him, of all people, to show up. Anyone showing up at such a time was unexpected, so….. _It was expected that Gamzee would show up_, she thought. Expected the unexpected.

But before her was not the Capricorn with the messy clothes, the clown makeup, and the magnificently long horns. It was the Taurus; the shyest person, whom Vriska had always tried to push along, was now helping his 'bully'. Despite finally realizing that she was not in danger, Vriska did not let go.

The girl did not want to talk, for it'd come out as a hideous mess of syllables due to her current state. She simply glared at the boy, who was now pinned to the ground by her hand.

Tavros reached up with a hand and brushed a running tear away. While Vriska was never the type to react to any sort of caring gesture or affection, the sudden touch caused her to break down once again. She collapsed onto Tavros and embraced him in a hug, but quickly got up and began to throw random punches, telling the boy to get the hell away from her.

"Go away! GO AWAY! GOAWAYGOAWAYGOAWAY!"

"Uh, Vriska. V-Vriska. V- Ow! VRISKA!" When the girl would not stop, he grabbed both her hands. Serket looked up at the boy, who previous would almost have a heart attack if he touched her. "SERKET. LISTEN TO ME. It'll, uh…." The moment Vriska made eye contact, the boy returned to his former, introverted state.

"It'll, uh, be okay." Tavros pulled Vriska in and began to pat her head, but she pushed him away and stood up; if she wasn't going to be weak before, she wasn't going to start now. With a sleeve, she wiped away the last tear, cleared her throat, and began to speak softly. "I- I'm fine. Good job being, well, not you. That showed a lot of confidence. Good job, Nitram."

Vriska walked towards the door and disappeared into the hallway, leaving Tavros behind.

The Taurus was slightly proud that he had finally been a person that Vriska would be proud of, but after the adrenaline of touching her faded, he suddenly felt very self conscious about his actions. _Did I grab her too hard? I hope I didn't, uh, sound stupid._

A dignified 'thank you' echoed down the hallway, and Tavros welcomed each word happily. He trotted out of the house with slight difficulty, and returned home.

[…..]

As Tavros was about to turn onto the street that led up to his house, he suddenly remembered that he had to grab some food for him and his friend / lucus, Tinkerbull. For several days in a row now, the pair had eaten nothing but pre-prepared sandwiches and instant noodles, so Tavros quickly took a 180 and headed toward the direction of the supermarket. He also wanted some food to reward himself for taking a step towards being a stronger person, as Vriska had implied earlier.

"Hm, uh. I wonder, uh, what was wrong with, uh, Vriska," he mumbled. He came up with a list of completely hypothetical reasons, ranging from mommy problems, to another crazy suitor – for even Tavros, himself, knows how terrifying it is to have Eridan Ampora declare his undying love for you, despite having psychotic genocidal thoughts. The latter reason seemed more reasonable, so he thought that the event would soon pass.

The doors to the supermarket flung open and Tavros darted for the dairy aisle, but quickly walked away; _if I feed Tinkerbull milk, is that… weird, _he thought. The supermarket contained so many aisles, from grub sauce to random, obscure sounding soft drinks. The amount of decisions bore down on the boy, so in the end, he decided to, once again, go to the prepared food aisle.

Tavros trotted over to the bakery part of the supermarket, but stopped just as he was about to grab some wheat pastry. Gamzee was standing near a stand, staring emptily at the empty shelf before him. Tavros figured that this was another one of these pie-phases, so he bounced over to Gamzee and tried to grab his attention.

"Gamz. Gamz. Uh, Gamz, what are you, uh, doing?"

"Tavbro! I….. motherfucking nothing."

"Gamz, want to come back with me tonight? I'm 'cooking' for Tinkerbull, uh, and I, I suppose. We could throw down, uh, some beats if you, uh, want to!" Gamzee didn't answer, and Tavros began to feel extremely awkward as the time ticked away. "So, uh, I just came from Vriska's and, uh…"

The name made Gamzee snap his head towards Tavros. "She, uh, seemed kind of upset, so, uh, I guess I had to, uh, comfort her." Tavros' voice began to trail away and be blushed extremely brightly. The magnitude – at least in his point of view – of his actions suddenly caught up to him and he began to internally panic about the event.

"Did she motherfucking feel better?" Gamzee mildly sounded concern, but Tavros did not seem to pick that up as his thoughts wandered to and fro. "Are you motherfucking okay, Tavbro?"

"I, uh, I had to grab her arms, uh, because she was, uh, punching me, uh, so hard. So, uh…." The boy seemed ready to collapse from thought-overload.

Gamzee patiently waited for his favourite motherfucker to calm down, but even the sporadic clown did not expect the next words to come out.

"GAMZ, I REALLY LIKE VRISKA WHATSHOULDIDO!"


	7. the smell of the sea

The irritated policemen in the school ushered the students to the next class. Vriska's locker squeaked and refused to close. As of lately, the metal contraption has been giving her problems, but luckily no one has accidentally stumbled upon this or all of her books would have been easily stolen. With a final kick, the locker slam shut before one of the officers approached her with their detention slip at ready.

The lecture room was half full; at this point in the school year, students that have learned that they can absorb the material better by cramming their nose into their textbook refuse to attend class, but Vriska's minute attention span did not allow her that gift, so she had to go to every class. Though there were seats at the front near the professor, part of her did not want to be noticed, so she grabbed the closest seat near the entrance.

Vriska fell into her seat and took out her notebook to take notes. As she spaced out waiting for the next bell to signal the start of class, her pen rolled off her desk and fell to the floor. With a displeased grunt, she bent down and wiggled her hand around to try and grasp the writing utensil, which was just out of her reach.

A gray hand extended and grabbed the pen, quickly replacing the pen onto the desk. Slightly surprised, Serket straightened herself and thanked the person. "Thanks, G-"

"No problem, Vvriska." Vriska was stunned to see the obnoxious tuft of purple hair and hipster glasses in her face. "ERIDAN. WH- What are you doing here! Don't you always kiss ass towards the front? And no, before you offer, mine is kiss-free."

Eridan gave the girl a sarcastic pout and threw his backpack to the floor, claiming the seat next to Vriska's as his. "No. Today, I felt like I should just sit back and wwatch the class from the back," he replied as he tried to tug his cape free from the back of the chair. _Clearly_, Vriska thought, _you are trying way too hard, buddy. _

While this encounter with Eridan was relatively normal, Vriska still did not want to be near her former suitor. She knew that was time passed, he would begin to egotistically talk about his successes in the class, which would lead to an unpleasant tour around his own ego, which was probably as big as Alternia itself. If that wasn't enough for him or if the clock did not free the girl from this social cage, he would probably go on to take about how stupid or 'wwasteful' the other students were. Despite having a prideful and dominant personality, Vriska didn't completely believe she was better than everyone else, so Eridan's egotistical acts always irked her. _Learn to be humble sometimes_. If _**the**_ prideful Vriska thought that someone was going overboard with personal self-esteem inflation, they really were going over the top.

When she thought that she would have to sit next to Eridork for the rest of class, a savior appeared from the door. The boy in a black t-shirt and polka dotted pants trotted down the steps. His hunched posture mimicked how Vriska felt about the situation she was in now. In a quick dash, Vriska grabbed the strap of her backpack and jumped over the seat in front of her. Eridan called after the girl, "Vvriska, wwhere are you going? Wwhat about me?"

"I'M SORRY. I'M NOT FEELING VERY HIPSTER-Y TODAY," she screamed as she dashed down the aisle. Just as the clown sat down, Vriska popped down into the seat next to him. With a look of genuine surprise, the boy stared wide-eyed at the girl; his eyes were clear, not drug-clouded or tired. "G-Gamzee. Uh, hey."

Perhaps the boy didn't know what to say, because he just stared at the spidergirl. "Look, I know I'm sorry about last time. I didn't mean to get all emotional like that. It wasn't really like me, and-" All of the words came out of the girl at top speed as if her time was about to end. "And I-"

Gamzee raised his hand and covered her mouth. His demeanor softened to his normal stoner face and he produced a bottle of cotton candy blue Faygo from his backpack. "Motherfucker, drink up and chill out." Vriska couldn't believe that after all that had happened, Gamzee was still Gamzee, the boy who has the most inconsistent personality.

In reality, and unbeknownst to anyone, Gamzee had felt absolutely regretful, but he was not going to break character now. He had decided that night after staring out his twelve-section window, waiting for his dad, that he was going to spend the rest of his time in Alternia in peace. He had taken into consideration Tavros' recent confession, amongst others, and concocted a plan: let's motherfucking chill. Since Goatdad did not like he would return soon, there were only three people Gamzee would want to spend the rest of his time relaxing with: Tavbro, Karkat, and Motherfucking Vriska.

When the girl, shocked by the unexpected reaction, didn't take the bottle, Gamzee reached his other hand forward and twisted the bottle open. A large hiss echoed the room, and the sweet aroma of cotton candy rushed to Vriska. It reminded her of the day at the carnival, and…..

She grabbed the bottle and drank it all in one gulp; all of the feelings and soda went down roughly. When the final drop left the bottle, she gasped for air and let out an uncharacteristic burp. Gamzee smiled to see that his moirail – or matesprit – was at least functioning socially. He had no doubt that the strongest and toughest girl in the school could not handle a little – or big – slap to the face by Life sometimes, but one could not be totally sure.

"Yo, Gamz. To repay you for this bottle, let's go watch a movie tonight." Serket stared intently at the boy. "Woah, motherfucker, calm yourself." "No, for reals. I want to spend some more, um, quality time with you before you, you know, have to go."

Vriska looked away with a cobalt blush. It was obvious to both of them now that they had gone far beyond moirallegiance, but neither was going to speak of the situation to avoid awkwardness; they both just wanted to spend the next few weeks in peace. Just as friends. Really close, sporadic, random, sarcastic, tease-tastic friends.

The clown gave out a chuckle, which Vriska returned quietly since the professor was now angrily telling the students to quiet down. The two trolls sank into their seats and mocked the presentation. Occasionally Gamzee would tease Vriska about how she would fail the next test if she did not concentrate, but she'd return that jab by demanding that he tutor her again. The professor continued on with the lecture.

[….]

Gamzee arrived at the girl's house with relative ease. Vriska Serket was known for having one of the eeriest homes in the region, and if the dark shadow the building cast towards its surroundings did not give it off, no one could ignore the periodic screams of her mother. The screeches echoed a couple yards and only the bravest stayed around.

Although the noise was unsettling, something about it excited Gamzee. He knocked on the door with extra energy and a couple seconds later, the blue lipped girl bounced the door open. Her usual punk jacket was now gone, along with her skinny jeans and other Vriska-ware. In their place were really baggy and loose pajama pants, and an oversized t-shirt.

Gamzee tugged at one end of the shirt. "Woah, bro. Motherfucker knows how to prepare for a date."

"Haha, you're lucky if you get a date with me."

"Oh? So you're just hiding your…. rolls?" Vriska gave him a playful punch and shut the door behind her. Apparently, the crazy spidergirl really was going to go out in public dressed as if she just got out of bed. Her cobalt eyes glowed in the little sun that penetrated the fortress of her house, which urged her friend to move along. "Come on, come on! That creepy movie is playing. I want to go see ittttt. Gamzeeeeeeee. Let's goooooooo."

The clown gave a defeated laugh and turned around to go, but stopped when he didn't hear the footsteps of his companion. She had remained rooted to the spot in front of her door with her arms dangling on the side. Knowing how stubborn the girl could be, Gamzee knew exactly what she wanted. He trudged back and bent over, allowing the girl to climb onto his back.

Vriska gave a playful, but suppressed, yelp and climbed onto his back. She jumped on and the mounds of extra fabric draped over her friend like a large blanket. She giggled and wrapped her arms around Gamzee, whispering that she'd choke him if he dared use her as a battering ram. Although the Capricorn wasn't the most muscular looking, he could miraculously carry Vriska far distances. For a while, Vriska had worried that she might have overdone her playfulness, but Gamzee didn't seem to strain too hard in lugging her around, so she rested her head on his shoulder and began to space out.

There were many sounds that occasionally penetrated her mind. The periodic 'honk's that escaped Gamzee were unmistakable. The sound of younger trolls and transportation devices popped up once in a while. Sometimes, people from their school gawked and spoke in hushed tones about how the school's sexual object was now with the stoner; it was like a troll romance comedy come to life. The slow hushes of these random sounds lured Vriska into a sleep; the wind calmly soothed her and she fell into a soft nap.

Gamzee had noticed that Vriska's breathing had become more controlled and rhythmic, so he guessed that she had fallen asleep on him. He had wondered how many more times he'd be next to her while she slept – despite how creepy this sounded – before he had to go. So many things are now numbered; the number of days left in school, the number of miraculous nights with Tavbro; the number of "FFFUUUCCKKK"s that Karkat would say to Gamzee; all of them were numbered. He took this moment to be special and began to hum a mirthful tone. The wind occasionally blew Vriska's hair partly into his face. It didn't smell like the fruits and grub-snacks that most girls' hair smelled like; it smelled damp, but not the bad kind of damp. It faintly reminded him of the caves and forests he used to visit with Goatdad when he was little.

"Hey, Vriska. Motherfucker. You smell like the motherfucking amazing seas my father used to take me. But, we stopped when I almost drowned once. Goatdad was disappointed in me, but I kept laughing it off, saying how fucking miraculous it was that I survived. Miracles." Gamzee continued to whisper random childhood stories to the Vriska; he wasn't sure if she could hear him or not, but he wasn't the clown to care. He'll be as sporadic as he pleased. "And now, I'm motherfucking terrified of the water. It's kind of motherfucking funny that my dad loves it. Maybe that's why we don't get along."

Vriska stirred slightly on Gamzee's back and her lip rested on his neck. The warmth of her mouth gave Gamzee a slight shiver and he did not dare move her in the slightest in case her smooth lips would part from him.

The walk continued in the same fashion until they got to the theatre. If common sense didn't speak, the clock plainly told the pair that they were late; of course at the speed they were going at, they were going to miss the movie. The Capricorn shook the Scorpio slightly and she gave a small moan. "Wh- where are we?" "Motherfucking open your eyes and see, you dork."

Vriska had realized that they were late, but she didn't seem taken back. "I sort of guessed this would happen. Well, Plan B. We rent a movie and watch it at your place." This was a plan Gamzee would definitely not reject. A smile crept onto his face and Vriska caught a small glimpse. Her stomach gave into a wave of butterflies at the thought of him being pleased that they'd spend time closer together, but to retrieve her dignity, she suddenly toughened up.

Serket wrapped her arms around Gamzee's waist and tried to hoist him up, but failed miserably. "HAHAHA MOTHERFUCKER, what are you doing!" "Returning the favour. I'll carry you now."

Her attempt was so awful that Gamzee fell to the floor laughing. Vriska pouted and began to walk towards his house, so Gamzee got up from the floor, patted some debris off, and followed her. "Come on, motherfucker can't get a motherfucking laugh?"

"Hmph!"

"Come here, mother-" "Vriska." "What?" "My name is Vriska Serket. There's no 'm' or 'u' or anything from your crude vocabulary in there!" "You realize if I take out all of the motherfucking letters in 'mother fucker', your name would be Visa S. Visas. Visas. V i s a s."

Vriska tried to come up with a quick retort, but she couldn't. Their war of upperhanded retorts had resumed. She remained silent and kept walking, half pouting and half smirking at how quickly their relationship had healed. _Relationship. I suppose we are in a relationship_, she thought.

Gamzee reached his hand down and snaked his fingers between Vriska's. Vriska, who was deep in thought about what quadrant – if any – that her and Gamzee was in, did not expect the sudden contact and gave a loud "BLAAHHH!" but Gamzee kept his firm grip.

Her eyes narrowed and gave darted looks at Gamzee, as if saying "I know what you're up to" or "I'm watching you, buddy boy", but Gamzee knew better than her that she was merely pouting to get more of his attention. Vriska liked the feeling of Gamzee's hand in her's; they were slightly rough but the touch was soft. There were so gentle, unlike previous dominant significant others. Of course, Vriska always came up on top as the alpha significant other, but there's only so much of that aggressive tug-of-war in a relationship that she can take. Vriska was not meant to hate; she would pretend to hate and be strong, but it was all an act.

Gamzee's hands were intensely warm; Vriska half guessed that it was because he was a naturally warm troll and half guessed it was because he, too, was flustered. This was the first motion of intimacy, if you could call it that. The clown's palms were huge compared to the girl's and that created a protective feeling. Vriska leaned slightly into Gamzee and walked forward.

And little did they know that their moment would be shattered in a matter of minutes.


	8. offended

While Gamzee was always a very relaxed and laidback guy, his only flaw was the constant desire to please all parties in his life; even if they – Goatdad – were rarely around, Gamzee would love to make him proud. Many trolls would see this as a sign of weakness, especially of someone with purple blood and so high up the caste system. Humans would see this as a great aspect of the personality, but what are humans? Gamzee does not know. He does not know why he is being compared to something that does not exist in his world.

Gamzee and Vriska were intertwined at the hands – fingers interlocked between fingers. Gamzee had wanted to keep that smile for as long as he could on the girl's face until he could not see it anymore, but in the back of his head, the joyful moment was haunted by Tavros' confession. Gamzee was in the supermarket, walking around in one of his silent moods because he had upset Vriska when Tavros had ran into Gamzee. The Capricorn could not recall much of the encounter, for he both lacked the effort, mood, and sopor. Tavros had ran up to him in excitement, having been thrown into the mess that Gamzee had created by keeping his enlistment a secret from everyone, and explained how he had found Vriska to comfort her.

That part, Gamzee remembered. It had hurt him deeply that he had extremely disappointed Vriska, to the point where she broke character and lost it in front of one of the only trolls she felt protective of (while still keeping her rough demeanor, of course). In order to not offend yet another close troll, he had simply listened to Tavros' tale without much reaction until, out of nowhere, Tavros confessed his feelings for Vriska.

It was sort of expected, in a sense, since Gamzee gave off that 'comforting' aura.

It was rare for Gamzee to let his inner destructive impulse come out, but for a split second, his face had slightly twitched and contorted; his hand had moved ever so slightly towards the nearest object, but he immediately cleared his mind. No need to freak out Tavbro.

A false smile had crossed Gamzee's face and the conversation continued.

That moment still rung fresh in Gamzee's mind; should he actually be happy now but betrayal hung over his head. He would be 'stealing' from Tavbro…. he thought. The clown's goal to remain a cheerful, happy person, and to live life to the fullest before his enlistment was failing more rapidly than Karkat's programming – which meant, it was _**failing**_.

The entire time that he thought about this, his face did not give what was on his mind away; even if he did, his ridiculous make up helped cover it up.

Vriska turned around and smiled a soft smile at Gamzee, but dropped it in fear that it'd make her seem too weak. "You know, I planned this all along. The right reactions, the right words to say just to make things work out. All me," she huffed triumphantly. To what extent this was true, Gamzee would also not know, but he humoured her and let her claim herself as the overseerer of relationships. She continued to hold Gamzee's hand until he suddenly came to an abrupt stop. The Scorpio had been zoning out – probably contemplating 'the next step in her master plan' – and had not noticed anything in her surroundings.

She turned around the tugged roughly on Gamzee's arm to signal to him that she wanted to actually make it home before her arm rusted or the near star went supernova, but Gamzee stood rooted to the ground, staring off somewhere in front of him. To see what could be more mesmerizing than the great, sexy Vriska Serket herself, she turned around, expecting a life-size sopor pie or the foretold Messiahs. Instead, she had seen Tavros standing a couple yards ahead, looking….. shocked. _Shocked? Astonished? Scared? What's the face for, Toreadork_, she thought.

The bull horned boy walked forward slowly, but Gamzee did not budge, which meant that the girl attached to his limb was also not going to be able to stray far.

When Tavros had gotten close enough to Vriska and Gamzee, he looked down at their intertwined hands, and looked back up at his best friend. "Gamzee…. I…. I don't understand. I- Tinkerbull told me I have to speak my mind and be confident. I'm extremely confident right now; just look at how I'm looking into your eyes. Therefore, I'm confident enough to, uh, ask you why you're doing this?"

Gamzee didn't say anything.

"With this new confidence, I can, uh, just speak my mind. Just look at all of these words roll out." Out of respect for her matesprit, Vriska resisted the urge to groan and berate Tavros for the utter stupidity that was pouring out of his speaking orifice. Her thinkpan just hurt when all of these ideas about how to punish Tavros for being so transparent later poured into her.

"Ga- Gamzee! I had spoken confidently to you before about my feelings! And, uh, as a bro-" "I am your motherfucking bro, Tavbro." Tavros was temporarily taken back by Gamzee's first words since they met on this street, but he continued. "I thought we were bros, so, uh, how can you do this to, uh, me?" No one spoke for a second.

Vriska was probably going to turn blue and fall over from the utter lack of failure – as she judged it to be – that was strangling her right now. _This conversation. THIS CONVERSATION. I UNDERSTAND JACK SHIT. _

"Well, since I'm more bold now, I'll, uh, let it go. But…" Tavros reached forward and grabbed Vriska's free arm and she flinched from the unexpected touch. She half thought that Tavros was going to pull another borderline-thinkpan-hemorrhage like the last time he grabbed her wrist during their study session. "Um, Tavro-"

Tavros Nitram leaped forward and attempted to kiss Vriska on the lips, but suddenly was hit by a wave of regret, so he targeted her cheek next. But then, the second wave of betrayal for Gamzee smacked him in the face and he backed away. The entire encounter last no more than a few short seconds, but the awkwardness it produced would have been able to drown any god-awful, deadly, giant lusus in the sea, if there ever was one. _All of the awkward. ALL. of the awkward_, whimpered Vriska in her mind.

"So, I guess my confidence failed me. Um, Tink-"

"Toreadork, what are you trying to pull? That was the worst attempt at feigning confidence; saying you're confident does not make you're confident. And what was THAT?" Vriska gestured angrily at the spot on her cheek where Tavros' lips would have landed.

Tavros looked square into Vriska's eye, which is arguably the only show of confidence since the accursed word entered the conversation; it had been said so many times now that Vriska almost had trouble grabbing that word to describe the look in Tavros' eyes. But then he turned away and ran.

"Ta- I DIDN'T MEAN TO BE SO HARSH. I'm S- S- SO- SOR- ah, forget it." Vriska turned around from the awkward encounter to share a perplexed expression with Gamzee, but that was not the look that she saw on his face. There was a twist of regret and something else she couldn't place her hand on.

"Gamz, what's wrong? Spill it out, you nooksucker," she said as she playfully punched his arm.

"Look Vriska, Tavros- Tavbro is a really motherfucking great guy. He's really chill and his smiles are pure miracles. He's a really motherfucking cool motherfucker."

Vriska had an idea where this was going. Despite her grades, she was not stupid and she knew how to read people like a book. She was not going to let Gamzee speak another word. "What is this? A sick motherfucking joke to you, Gamz? Do you think I'm a joke? You should NOT mess with me." "I-" "No. No I's. No but's. No um's like your _Taaaaaaaavbro_," she mocked him. "I'm not some sort of stupid toy you can throw around. Do you KNOW who I am? I will wreck you. I will WRECK you. _**I**_ will be the person to use others, not you. GOT THAT?"

With each syllable, she jabbed her finger harder into Gamzee's chest. Of all of her offenses fired at Gamzee since they met, this has to be the most vehement. Gamzee stood there with a stoner look, which pissed Vriska off even more.

"Oh, OH. You want me to pull out spider bitch so you can hear me? Fine. You, Gamzee Makara, are a DISGRACE." That last word hit home for Gamzee and he physically flinched at the vice attached to the word as Vriska flung it full force towards him. "You- You-" Vriska could not maintain her touch, 'wretched' personality with her moirail; his calm face did not fear her anger. "You….. I thought….. Forget it. Screw you. Have fun with your enlistment. Have fun with your Tavbro and your loudmouth 'fuckass'."

"Fuck this drama," she concluded and turned away, walking off in the direction of her house. Vriska had showed enough emotions once; she wasn't going to do it again.

Gamzee simply stood there, conflicted and…. Gamzee'd. No parties were pleased today.


	9. patchings

It was four weeks before enlistment now, and exactly a day after the encounter with Vriska. Gamzee did not fully understand how she interpreted the situation. Did she see him as a troll using her as some sort of pass-able friend with benefits so that his best friend could finally get a girl? Or did she really see his true motives and conflicts? There were hesitations as she fled from encounter, which led Gamzee to that last thought, but those could probably be just as misunderstood as Vriska Serket was as a troll. _Heck, even I'm motherfuckin' misunderstood sometimes_.

Gamzee had sought the help of quadrant expert, Karkat Vantas, but even he berated Gamzee for being such a 'stupid ignoramus', which definitely did not lift Gamzee's mood. "YOU UNCOUTH PIECE OF SHIT. EVEN I KNOW THAT YOU'RE DOING QUADRANT VACILLATION WRONG. YOU ARE AN UNBELIEVABLE DENSE, DUMB, DOUCHE BA-" "Best friend, that's not what I was trying to motherfucking do."

"OH HELL FUCKING YES THAT'S WHAT YOU WERE DOING. YOU WERE VACILLATIONING-WHATEVER-THE-HELL-THAT-WORD-IS ALL THE WAY FROM VRISKA SERKET'S LUCIOUS LIPS ALL THE WAY TO TAVROS' SHINY METAL ASS. LET ME MAKE A MENTAL NOTE TO TURN THIS INTO AN AWFUL ROM-COM OR SOMETHING BECAUSE IT'S THE PURE IDIOCRACY YOUNG TROLLS WOULD PAY BOONBUCKS TO SEE. I'LL BE ASS DEEP IN BOONBUCKS. MY ASS WILL BE SO DEEP IN THOSE BOONBUCKS THAT THEY WILL EMERGE WITH THE CONDENSE'S FACE ON THEM. THE FACE WILL BE TATTOOED ALLLL OVER MY ASS."

"Karkat, I don't motherfucking need this right now. I- I'm sorry. I really don't. I feel motherfucking awful enough. And is Condense's face really on boonbucks? Man, I don't motherfucking care."

"SO YOU ADMIT TO QUADRANT VACILLATION! BECAUSE THAT SHIT WAS SO OBVIOUS THAT IT WAS LIKE SOMEONE LITERALLY TOOK THAT SHIT AND SMEARED IT ALL OVER MY FACE. EVER TEREZI COULD SMELL THE VACILLATION FROM MILES AWAY."

The Capricorn gave out a chuckle; he had to admit that last line was funny, but at the same time, Gamzee felt like the more he had tried to fix his relationships, the more he had messed with them. Moirails. To matesprit. Then to what? Then two moirails in the same quadrant? He didn't even understand his quadrant half the time and it would be miraculous if it all made jack-shit-sense to him one day.

Karkat Vantas looked down at his best friend, who was now hunched over more than usual on the staircase. Perhaps he had been too harsh on the clown; of course, Gamzee was there when he had difficulties with his own quadrants. Internally, Karkat began talking to himself, berating his past self via thought-rage about the stupidity of his own words and how he "SHOULD FUCKING STICK A SOCK IN IT, DOUCHE BAG. LOOK AT WHAT YOU DID TO YOUR FRIEND".

"LOOK, GAMZEE, LET'S GET SOME FAYGO, OKAY? ALL ON ME THIS TIME. BECAUSE AS THE LEADER OF OUR STUDY GROUP, IT IS UP TO ME TO KEEP THE MORALE UP, OKAY? COME ON," he screamed as he tugged Gamzee upward and dragged him to the vending machines. The clown was heavy, but not exactly unwilling to the accept the offer of free Faygo, so he eventually helped himself up, too.

Gamzee lifted some of his weight off of Karkat, but still enjoyed his friend supporting him – both emotionally and literally – during a time of 'motherfuckin' need'. "You're right, best friend. We should motherfucking just relax. Chill, kick back, and let miracles take their course." "THAT'S THE SPIRIT, YOU WHINY BASTARD."

In Karkat's own way, that was a compliment. The moment, though, didn't last long, because to both troll's absolute horror, there was a line at the vending machine and Vriska Serket's quadrant vacillated ass was right at the back of it. "Mother…." "FUCKING…." "….".

Vriska had turned her head, for no reason really, except to flip her hair gorgeously. It would seem that she had returned to her harmless redrom games in the hallway, making trolls turn their heads in her wake. In her own way, it helped her take her mind off of Gamzee, but the clown didn't know that and his quadrant psychologist friend there probably could not pick up on something so nuance. Little did she expect that the two certain heads that she did not want to turn would be staring straight at her as she steadied herself.

An awkward silent fell above the awkward silence that already existed between Karkat and Gamzee; the former did not know whether to start kicking Gamzee into the arms of the female troll or to just drag his friend out of there before something crazy happened. The latter was simply Gamzee-ing up the place with his stoner look / classic poker face, but Karkat knew what was clearly running through his mind.

Vriska maintained eye contact. Her arm had flinched slightly when she was the troll, and for a split second, it seemed like she was going to bolt for the other end of the hallway, but she held her ground, hardened her face, and turned back around.

Gamzee grabbed Karkat's hands and turned around, too, returning to the staircase.

[…]

It was now two and a half weeks before enlistment. There were now large crowds gathered around the large egg-shaped ship at the dock every day, occasionally leaving their own marks about wishing soldiers luck or 'BOO CONDENSE, BOO'. Gamzee could see part of the top of the egg from his house from the same window he looked out for Goatdad on.

He was in an awful mood because he had seen Vriska talking with Eridan Ampora. _Was she doing that just to fucking mess with me? Or was she motherfucking just playing her own redrom games? Was __she__ motherfucking playing motherfucking redrom games with me, too? Or maybe best friend was motherfucking right. I was fucking playing with her. And Tavros. _

Vriska had seen Gamzee gawk at her and her old acquaintance. She had stared back at Gamzee, first with a confused look – a mix between longing, anger, and disgust – and then she took Eridan by his scarf and dragged him away to a more private location to talk. Eridan Ampora flailed, but then whispered provocative words to Vriska. He had even added an eyebrow wiggle, which was the last thing Gamzee saw before the seadweller and Vriska disappeared around the corner. However, he did hear Vriska give Eridan a nice slap in the face for his disgusting words. Angry swearing followed. No, she was not going to return to him. Yes, she was treating him like a toy. No, she was not playing redrom games with him. Not even she would do that.

Gamzee smiled a bit at the fact that at least Vriska had not gone back to fish-lover-boy, but quickly faded as Tavros emerged from the crowd in the locker area, occasionally getting death glares from trolls annoyed by Tavros' horns bumping into them. One troll even pushed Tavros into the lockers on the other side of the area, causing the Taurus boy to trip and fall, scattering his notes everywhere.

This moment gave Gamzee a sort of deja-vu feeling. He walked over hesitantly, and began to help pick up some scattered loose leave papers.

"H-hey, that's…. those are, my notes. Please, give…. them back." Tavros did not sound menacing, but he was pissed, which surprised Gamzee. This was just like when he'd met Vriska; she, too, had yelled at him for trying to help. "I'm just trying to help a motherfucking bro. Am I…. still your bro?"

"…"

"…."

"I'm still…. your Tavbro, if you're still my best friend." "Motherfucking deal."

Gamzee leaned in and gave Tavros a bromantic hug. "Look, Tavbro, I'm really motherfucking sorry. It's just, I thought Vriska was motherfucking amazing a long while ago. A long while before you told me. It wasn't like I was motherfucking out to get you like subjugglators. Haha, honk. It was a motherfucking joke."

"Yeah…. me too… I'm sorry….. for, uh, making things awkward between us. All of…. us. Between you. And me… and…. Vriska." Tavros hung his head down and began to pick up papers, but from years of experience, Gamzee knew Tavros felt like absolute shit. The clown leaned in again for another hug, but this time he made sure Tavros knew everything was going to be alright before he let go.

The bell had rung and the trolls in the hallway now scrambled to their classrooms. The detention happy hall monitors would soon begin their carnage and no one wanted to be around. Lockers crashed loudly as trolls slammed them shut. The occasional profanity leaked out. It was a matter of minutes before Gamzee and Tavros were alone in the hallway. It was silent, but not like the awkward silences that had suffocated Gamzee in many recent events.

"Gamz, I gotta….. run off to class…. but, I'll talk to you on Trollian tonight….. okay? Uh, I guess… I'll see you later." Tavros ran off towards the upper level, leaving Gamzee alone in the hallway. Gamzee proceeded to lie on the floor, pretending to be a dead body just for honks and giggles.

He had basically given Karkat a heaven of quadrant situations for him to psychoanalyze until his pants bunched up so tightly that he literally self fulfilled his nickname of 'Pantskat', and he had patch things up with a Tavros, he thinks. Later that night, Gamzee and Tavros would laugh over the matter and drink some Faygo over a cheesy romcom that Karkat had recommended, but Gamzee didn't know that yet. All that was left was Vriska. If he had broken off all quadrants Vriska, he at least still wanted to be her motherfucking friend.

Suddenly, as if coincidence was Gamzee's best friend, a female troll with long hair knelt down beside Gamzee. She sounded to be out of breath. She sounded…. familiar.

"Oh gog. Gamzee. Gamzee Makara. Are you playing dead? You better be motherfucking playing dead. Do you need more sopor pie? I saw you on the floor- Get the fuck up. ARE YOU OKAY!" Her speech sounded rushed. A hand clasped Gamzee's shoulder and brutally shook him. "GAMZEE. GAMZ. MOTHERFUCKING CLOWN."

The words had all poured out so fast that Gamzee had not been given time to speak. The shaking did not help, too. He flipped over, and it was as if the god of coincidences and repetition just smacked him in the face with a freight train. Events and encounters were repeating themselves all over. The notes; the lying-like-a-dead-body-to-draw-attention-to-female-trolls. It was all repeating itself. There, hovered above the shaken Gamzee, was a frightened Vriska Serket, worried about whether the high clown had finally overdosed on sopor.

"V-Vr-…. Honk."

[[Whoops, that was a long hiatus, haha.]]


	10. of kimesis and pailings

[[ herp derp lemons near the end. don't read if you don't like lemons. or my own interpretation of troll biology ]]

"Honk. Hey, motherfucke- OOF-"

Before Gamzee could finish his sentence, Vriska let her fists greet his face. "WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU, MAKARA?" "I- OOOOOF"

Vriska Serket slugged another sucker punch at the boy below her. "Motherfucker, that really motherfucking hurt," he moaned.

The female troll snarled and gripped his throat tightly, pinning his body down with her free arm. "Listen here. I didn't come for some make-up-and-get-up sort of thing. I didn't fucking come here to hear you call me that _disgusting_ nickname. I came because…." She hesitate, wondering which words would best convey her thoughts. "… I came because I thought I could find some afternoon snack for my lusus. She hasn't had blood that purple in a while and I'm sure she would have enjoyed it. Fuck; looks like it was time wasted."

"Is that a motherfucking proper way to gree- OOOOF"

Vriska pushed hard onto his throat. "I didn't tell you you could talk, Makara. Don't think that greeting me a stupid 'honk' will make un-piss me off. We aren't moirails anymore."

"So does this mean we're kismesis now? Just motherfucking look at us," he uttered in a stoner sort of manner. Vriska was taken back by the statement and her face felt slightly warm, but to retaliate for such a humiliating reaction, she now pushed hard enough to almost cut off his breathing. "Makara, don't change the subject."

"Well….. what do you motherfucking want me to do? What can we motherfucking do now? What can you say to me that will motherfucking make you feel better?" "Stop saying 'motherfucking'! It's MOTHERFUCKING pissing me off!" "No."

Vriska snarled again, baring her sharp fangs and did not ease on Gamzee's throat or chest.

"Motherfucking get off of me, Serket."

Vriska was taken back, again, but Gamzee's retort. She couldn't recall a time between their interactions when he had actually forced his own will on another troll. This made her do a fucking acrobatic pirouette off the handle and earned her an imaginary medal. "NO MAKARAAA- ack!"

Gamzee flung his hand up and gripped Vriska throat and both were now locked in some sort of physical stalemate. Their eyes were kept firmly on each other's, unmoving. A hallway monitor had seen the situation, but neither of the interlocked trolls were ready to give up; while hallway monitors were ecstatic about handing out punishment, they never liked to enter matters that involved trolls higher up in the hemospectrum because such fights often turned ugly. Safety before humiliation.

"Grrr, Ma- ka- ra," Vriska gasped out. For someone as scrawny and gangly looking as Gamzee, he definitely had an unexpected amount of strength. Vriska could see that his eyes were beginning to dilate, and a dark smile crept onto his face. Part of Vriska became a little terrified, but she did not back down; she had come so far – both in this interaction and in life – and she wasn't going to back down now. She hadn't backed down before, and this was not going to be a first.

"Honk. Motherfucking honk."

"I TOLD YOU NOT TO SAY 'MOTHERFU'- AUUGHHHH." Gamzee had pushed Vriska straight up with the one arm that was on her throat, causing her breathing to be temporarily cut off. In a split second, Gamzee stood straight up with a Vriska still in his palms, and threw her roughly on the floor. Gravity did not look kindly on the female troll, for she landed with a loud thud that echoed down the hallway. The Capricorn panted heavily, but not in an out of breath way. It sounded feral. It sounded hungry. It sounded like pure bloodlust.

"G- Gamzee?" Perhaps Vriska Serket had finally been wrong. Today was the first day that she absolutely feared for her life. "G-Gamzee!"

"Serket…. Motherfucking Serket. Sh- don't talk. I didn't say you could talk," he mocked her. "I told you….. Honk. That nothing you say or do right now will change anything. Hehe. HEHEHE." His cackle sounded different from the laughs he had when he and Vriska hung out before. Perhaps his system had finally run out of sopor – a sort of self destructive move on Gamzee's part when he wanted to be masochistic to repent for his own 'faults'. "Serket, what did you motherfucking think would happen if I wasn't dead? Motherfucker, you knew I wasn't dead. So why did you come over?"

Gamzee Makara climbed on top of Vriska, grabbing both of her wrists and pinning them down above her head. She was now completely immobilized, but for some reason, she found the situation to be strangely calming. It strangely resembled her past kimesistudes. Since her arms could not be used as weapons, she spit on Gamzee's face and gave him a smug smile.

"Are we motherfucking doing that now, Serket?" He returned the favour and Vriska growled at him.

"Gamzee, I'm done with you. I want you OUT OF MY LIFE. Now get. OFF. OF. ME."

Gamzee leaned his face in so that it was barely inches apart from Vriska's. She could smell the same scent he had when she first fell on top of him; perhaps it was coincidence, but the fall that took place at the staircase happened not even seven feet from her current position on that day. That last encounter was much less aggressive than the current one, but Vriska was not feeling reminiscent, so she pushed the thought out of her head. Or she would have, if the thought wasn't interrupted by Gamzee picking her up roughly by the wrists; the scene resembled a slained-animal-tied-on-a-stick situation.

"Makara, put me down." "No." "Motherfucking put me DOWN NOW," she screeched. Her last syllables echoed loudly through the halls, much like her fall earlier, and she was pretty sure the entire school heard, but since gossip spread like wild fire and everyone was already pretty informed on the current stage of their relationship, no one – assuming that someone heard – would have wanted to intervene in fear of being maimed. Two highbloods, one dangerous problem. The two high / semi-highbloods were now in a blood thirsty social stalemate and they were impatient to break it.

Vriska thrashed against Gamzee, but he somehow found to strength to throw her over his shoulder and grasp her flailing limbs so she couldn't accidentally or purposely gouge out his eyes with her shoes. "WHERE ARE YOU TAKING ME!" "We're going to motherfucking pail."

Immediately, Vriska stopped moving. Was she hearing things? _Did he just say pail_, she thought to herself. "Gamzee Makara. GAMZEE MAKARA. PUT ME DOWN. I DON'T WANT TO PAIL WITH YOU. I DON'T- I…." Gamzee had begun to softly stroke her lower back and Vriska fell silent. He had known that it was one of the fail proof ways to calm her – in fact, she was sure every troll had a certain stroke-pattern for instantaneous makeshift moirailling. At least, that's what she told herself so she'd seem less weak and vulnerable. "G… Gamzee….." The murderous atmosphere had dissipated. Gamzee's demeanor had returned to his normal stoner look, which surprised Vriska. She didn't know where this imaginary calming sopor had come from, but she wasn't going to argue against the change.

The clown stopped walking and put Vriska down momentarily. He stretched out his back and Vriska watched, unmoving. Whatever thought was running through her mind was probably incoherent, much like Gamzee's reactions. They were… unexpected.

Gamzee finished his stretches, picked Vriska up princess style, and made a mad dash for his house. While his house wasn't a considerable distance away from the school, it would still take at least seven minutes of sprinting.

While the time seemed long, everything went by in a blur. Vriska was not sure which quadrant her and Gamzee were now in, if they were still in one. He could still be playing games with her, but part of her missed his touch. The surroundings blurred, and she became amazed by how much stamina Gamzee had. "Gamzee. This is wrong. We shouldn't miss school. We….. hall monitors."

Both trolls knew that they should not suddenly leave school, but Gamzee was not going to be on Alternia for sweeps more – or perhaps ever again depending on how her Imperious Condescension wanted to expand her empire. Vriska knew she had to keep up with her studies. Ever since she met Gamzee, she had been paying more attention to retaining knowledge, much of which was unknown to her peer's for public-image's sake. She shouldn't miss school, but she….. missed Gamzee. _Fine, FINE I MISS HIM OKAY, _she yelled to herself on the inside.

The front door of the Makara residence was not locked, much like previous visits. Gamzee threw open the door, crossed the hallway, ascended the spiral staircases that made no noise when you climbed them, and ran into his room. Without a sound, he threw Vriska on the bed and kissed her roughly on the lips, much too quickly for the girl to react. He suckled on her lower lip while one of his free hands reached for her horns, massaging them rhythmically.

Vriska moaned into Gamzee, but tried to suppress any more sounds from escaping because she didn't want him to know that she was enjoying this. It was difficult to, though, because her horns were one of her weak spots. With each stroke, Vriska could feel the slight vibrations caused by the friction between her grooved horns and Gamzee's rough hands. Her hips grinded against Gamzee's, and she finally gave in to another moan. He bit on her ear and whispered her name softly.

"Vriska. I'm sorry. I'm really mother- I'm sorry."

Vriska heard his apology, but at the same time it escaped her mind. All she could feel were his deep whispers close to her ear and her horns, both of which were sending signal after signal to her thinkpan and it drove her crazy. "Vriska… I really a-…"

Vriska grabbed Gamzee's head and pulled it into her for another kiss. "Gamzee," she panted. "I… I'm flushed for you, b- BUT YOU WON'T HEAR THAT EVER AGAIN." "Hehe, I am too, motherfucker. Both red and black." The female was embarrassed by her confession; it made her feel weak and soft, but given the circumstances, it wouldn't hurt to let a dying troll know that.

Gamzee snaked his hands towards Vriska's sensitive areas. She moaned and wrapped her bulge around his hand. It was warm and somewhat slippery, which allowed Gamzee to begin to stroke her while his free hand continued to give her horns attention. The physical movements drove the Scorpio crazy. Her mouth opened just a little for another moan to escape and she gripped the sides of the bed. She had 'pailed' before. But it was more just rough kissing and a little grinding. Despite the image she put forth, she had actually never completely pailed with another troll before and she began to get a little uneasy and nervous.

Perhaps Gamzee sensed the uneasiness, because he slowed down his strokes and kissed Vriska's neck slowly. The more he kissed, and the slower his strokes got. Vriska whimpered against his touch and her bulge wrapped even tighter around his hand until she climaxed and arched her back. "G-Ga- Gamzee!" She fell back onto the bed as she released her blue genetic material and panted heavily. Gamzee's scent, which was now stronger than before partially because he had performed an amazing athletic feat when he dashed to his respite block that fast, filled her nose.

"G-Gamzee." Vriska' vision blurred, but she was still conscious enough to pull Gamzee above her. The two trolls kissed while Vriska tried clumsily to unbutton Gamzee's pants. He gave a little chuckle and slipped them off, tossing them on top of his horn pile. Now that the pants were gone, he resumed kissing his matesprit / kismesis and grinding against her bulge.

Their bulges wrapped around each other, and both he and Vriska gave an initial yelp at the touch. Both were not use to such personal touches, or pailing in general. He gave Vriska soft squeezes from time to time between strokes, while Vriska used a free hand to massage around the area. Gamzee moaned, too, and Vriska smirked; she was glad to know that she wasn't the only one getting soft here.

"Gamzee. This is…. FUCKING AWKWARD," Vriska screamed. "Don't be a motherfucking mood killer. I just motherfucking know what to do because I've got loads of free time and a husktop. Just fucking relax." He returned to kissing her and let a finger slide inside Vriska's nook. She gasped from the surprising touch, but her voice was muted by Gamzee as he began to kiss her roughly.

A puddle of purple and blue had begun to gather and it seemed like Vriska was ready. She gave an awkward nod to Gamzee without the eye contact, to hide her embarrassment, and Gamzee began to slide his bulge into her nook. Vriska threw her head back, and began to slide into him, too. Both trolls began slowly, but gradually pushed with more force. Gamzee threw his head back, much like Vriska from a few minutes before, and screamed a much expected 'fuck'. Vriska pulled the blanket over her mouth as she, too, uttered small profanities from the pleasure.

The clown began to pull his bulge out and slide it back in slowly, all the while still massaging Vriska's horns. The girl mewled, and yanked Gamzee closer to her by his horns. She, too, began to stroke his horns and Gamzee shuddered against her touch. His horns were extremely sensitive, much more so than Vriska. "So…. this is why you were so cranky when I threw that bottle at you at that gig a while back," Vriska giggled.

"Shut up, motherfucker," Gamzee whispered with a smile. Both trolls pulled their bulge out slightly to wrap around each other again. They grinded their hips together as they wrestled for dominance, but Gamzee won by a landslide and Vriska did not put up much of a fight. He suddenly thrust his bulge back into Vriska while she stroked other sensitive areas with her own and both picked up pace.

"A—nnggghhh," Vriska whimpered into the blanket, which she had practically stuffed into her mouth to stop herself from screaming. Her genetic material came out, followed by Gamzee's after he roughly and quickly thrusted a few more times.

"A- Aaaahhhh nnghhhhh."

The trolls collapsed into each other and panted. Vriska took in large gulps of Gamzee's scent while he buried his face in her thick hair. "Vriska, I really meant it when I said I was sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. It's just that… Tavros told me…..-"

"I know…. I just….. didn't know how to react. And I wanted to punch you really badly," she said as she rubbed the spot where she had landed two blows earlier on. She gave the spot a mean pinch, leaving Gamzee to flinch, but he returned her aggressive gesture with a laugh. "Don't toy with me, Vriska….. Honk."

"Gamzee, I don't want you to go." "Me neither, haha. I've finally begun to enjoy Alternia." "Has… has Goatdad come home? Does he even know?" "Naw, motherfucker, but I think it's better it's left like that." "Gamzee…" "Shhh, just sleep a bit."

"Fuck no. I want to shower."

Vriska climbed up to go into the shower, but not before giving Gamzee a playful smile. Gamzee smiled back, and as she disappeared down the hallway, he began to tidy up his room. The clown _never_ tidied up, but for some reason, part of him wanted to leave the room clean for now. He occasionally gave the bathroom a glance and a bittersweet smile, but part of him still felt like…. there was something missing. Or perhaps there was too much of something. Regret? He didn't know.

When he finally put new sheets onto his bed, the sun had already begun to rise, meaning that most of the trolls would go back to their respiteblock to hide from the heat. "VRISKA. WHY DON'T YOU MOTHERFUCKING STAY HERE TONIGHT. THE SUN'S ALREADY UP," he called.

Just before the sun completely broke the horizon, he gave the sea a last glance, but only the normal ripples and the stupid boat was there. No sight of a large lusus breaking the water. He turned bitterly away from the window and threw down the shades.

[[ augh, i've never written lemon before. ]]


End file.
